University of California Radiation Laboratory

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Motto	Bringing science solutions to the world
Established	August 26, 1931 (1931-08-26) (86 years ago)
Research type	scientific research and energy technologies
Budget	$785 million (2014)
Director	Michael Witherell
Staff	3,304
Students	800
Location	Berkeley, California, United States
Campus	200 acres (81 ha)
Operating agency	University of California
Nobel laureates	12
Website	lbl.gov

The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL or LBL), commonly referred to as Berkeley Lab, is a United States national laboratory located in the Berkeley Hills near Berkeley, California that conducts scientific research on behalf of the United States Department of Energy (DOE). It is managed and operated by the University of California. The laboratory overlooks the University of California, Berkeley's main campus.

The laboratory was founded in August 26, 1931 by Ernest Lawrence as the Radiation Laboratory of the University of California, Berkeley associated with the Physics Department. It centered physics research around his new instrument, the cyclotron, a type of particle accelerator for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1939. Throughout the 1930s, Lawrence pushed to create larger and larger machines for physics research, courting private philanthropists for funding. He was the first to develop a large team to build big projects to make discoveries in basic research. The photo on this page of the team sitting on the magnet yoke includes two other young scientists who went on to establish large laboratories: J. Robert Oppenheimer, who founded Los Alamos Laboratory, and Robert Wilson, who founded Fermilab. The lab moved to its site atop the hill above campus in 1940 as its machines, specifically the 184-inch (4.67 m) cyclotron, became too large for the university grounds.

Leslie Groves visited Lawrence's Radiation Laboratory in late 1942 as he was organizing the Manhattan Project, meeting J. Robert Oppenheimer for the first time. Lawrence and his colleagues developed the technique of electromagnetic enrichment of uranium using their experience with cyclotrons. This calutron (named after the university) became the basic unit of the massive Y-12 facility in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Lawrence's lab helped contribute to what has been judged to be the three most valuable technology developments of the war (the atomic bomb, proximity fuse, and radar). The cyclotron was finished in November 1946; the Manhattan Project shut down two months later.