A body politic and corporate is hereby created under the name of Gulf Coast Research Laboratory, to have perpetual succession, with powers to contract and be contracted with; to receive and acquire, by any legal method, property of any description, necessary or convenient for its operation, and to hold, employ, use and convey the same; to adopt and use a corporate seal; and to adopt by-laws, rules and regulations for the government of the same, its employees, officials, agents, and members.

The object and purposes of the Gulf Coast Research Laboratory shall be to promote the study and knowledge of science including the natural resources of the State of Mississippi and to provide for the dissemination of research findings and specimens from the Gulf Coast area.

The Gulf Coast Research Laboratory shall be under the control and supervision of the board of trustees of state institutions of higher learning, and the powers of said laboratory shall be vested in and its duties performed by said board.

The laboratory shall be located at some appropriate place within the state and on the Gulf of Mexico to be determined by the board of trustees of state institutions of higher learning.

It shall be the duty of the board of trustees of state institutions of higher learning to appoint or elect a director for said laboratory, determine the number of instructors, assistants and other employees and fix their compensation, and in cooperation with the Mississippi Academy of Science, prescribe rules, regulations, and policies governing the operation of the institution, qualifications of instructors and employees and for the admission of students, and for the direction of research programs.