Founded in 1943, the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School is the only subtropical applied and basic marine, atmospheric, and earth research institute in the continental United States.

Initially, the Marine Lab was located in a private boathouse on an estate on Belle Isle in Miami Beach.

In 1945, when the boathouse became structurally unsafe, the lab moved to a converted apartment building in Coral Gables, Florida near the main campus.

[14] Recently, the Rosenstiel School started unique a one-year Master of Professional Science degree program aimed at students planning non-research careers in business, government, or non-profit organizations.

[10] The Rosenstiel School is divided into five academic departments: In addition to its academic departments, Rosenstiel School has several research units: Oceans and Human Health Center, National Resource for Aplysia, National Center for Coral Reef Research, Center for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS), and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.

As of 2011[update], 358 professors and scientists conduct research programs and teach at Rosenstiel School and the University of Miami's main campus.

[27] The University of Miami's Rosenstiel School's Virginia Key 18-acre (73,000 m2) campus includes classroom facilities, laboratories, a dock, and a student center.

[31] The school also operates a 76-acre (310,000 m2) site on mainland Miami-Dade County that was formerly the United States Naval Observatory Secondary National Time Standard Facility, which already had buildings and a 20M antenna used for Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI).

[33] As of 2008, the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School receives $50 million in annual external research funding.

[34] Laboratories at Virginia Key are equipped with specialized instruments including a salt-water wave tank, the five-tank Conditioning and Spawning Systems, multi-tank Aplysia Culture Laboratory, Controlled Corals Climate Tanks, and DNA analysis equipment.

Rosenstiel School also operates Bimini Biological Field Station,[35] an array of oceanographic high-frequency radar along the U.S. east coast, and its Bermuda aerosol observatory.

[36] Research projects at Rosenstiel School are in the domain of atmospheric and marine sciences and include: Rosenstiel School's Marine Affairs and Policy Division conducts archaeological and paleontological research at Little Salt Spring in Sarasota County.

[41] Rosenstiel School has focused significant resources to studying the Deepwater Horizon oil spill and its long term environmental effect.

[43] In the summer of 2010, a CIMAS team working with the research vessel Walton Smith was able to document a 23-mile (37 km) long oil plume extending toward Dry Tortugas.