The Fondren Science Series began publication in 1949 with Volume 1, Number 1, and ran in parallel with the Field & Laboratory series and finally alongside the Journal of the Graduate Research Center. Dr. Ellis Shuler, a founding professor at SMU and Dean of the Graduate School, organized the first two issues. He solicited the first article and wrote Part II of the first issue which was published in 1950. This series coincided with the construction of the Fondren Science Building, which opened in 1950, and was then the largest building on campus and dedicated to the natural sciences. Unlike Field & Laboratory, Fondren Science Series published several much longer articles, but on an irregular schedule. Most of the series papers related to the Geological Sciences and paleontology. The exception was the final issue, Volume 11, the book About Bats, published in 1970.