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Lawrence Radiation Laboratory
A pioneering scientific laboratory founded in 1931 at UC Berkeley, it helped shape modern “team science” and grew from a small radiation lab into today’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Its story is closely tied to Ernest O. Lawrence, the inventor of the cyclotron and a central figure in 20th-century physics.
1 Audiobook
LRL Accelerators, The 184-Inch Synchrocyclotron
by Lawrence Radiation Laboratory
About the author
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory was the historic name used for the research lab founded by Ernest Orlando Lawrence at the University of California, Berkeley. It began in August 1931 as the UC Radiation Laboratory, created to support Lawrence’s cyclotron work and a new style of collaborative research that brought together physicists, chemists, engineers, biologists, and physicians.
As the laboratory expanded, it moved from the Berkeley campus up into the Berkeley hills. After Lawrence’s death in 1958, the lab was renamed Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, and over time it evolved into the institution now known as Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Its legacy is much bigger than a name change. The laboratory became one of the best-known centers of American scientific research, with a long record of advances in physics, energy, computing, biology, and environmental science. In simple terms, the “Lawrence Radiation Laboratory” name points to an earlier chapter in the history of Berkeley Lab, one of the defining research institutions of the modern era.