[1] The ship is named for United States Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown, who was killed while in office in a plane crash on 3 April 1996 while on a trade mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

[2] Ronald H. Brown's keel was laid at VT Halter Marine's Moss Point shipyard in Pascagoula, Mississippi, in February 1995, and she was launched on 30 May 1996.

In addition to her state-of-the-art oceanographic sampling capabilities, the Ronald H. Brown has instrumentation to study the atmosphere, including a Doppler weather radar for a better understanding of storm dynamics at sea.

This combined atmospheric and oceanographic sampling capability makes the ship unique in the world's research fleet.

Scientists aboard the vessel can study critical environmental issues across the world's oceans.