Brookhaven National Laboratory

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), is a United States national laboratory located in Upton, New York on Long Island, and was formally established in 1947 at the site of Camp Upton, a former U.S. Army base. Its name stems from its location in the greater area of the Town of Brookhaven.

Operation

Brookhaven, which originally was owned by the Atomic Energy Commission is owned by successor United States Department of Energy which subcontracts the actual research and operation to universities and research organizations. It is currently operated by Brookhaven Science Associates which is an equal partnership of Stony Brook University and Battelle Memorial Institute. It was operated by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), from 1947 until 1998 when Associated lost the contract in the wake of a scandal when tritium leaked into the Long Island Central Pine Barrens groundwater on which it sits. AUI consists of a consortium of Harvard, Columbia University, Cornell University, University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, John Hopkins University, Princeton University and Yale. [ [http://select.nytimes.com/mem/archive/pdf?res=F10614FD3B5A1B7B93C3A91788D85F438485F9 Atomic Laboratory on Long Island to Be Mighty Research Center - New York Times - March 1, 1947] ]

Co-located with the laboratory is the Upton, New York forecast office of the National Weather Service.

BNL is staffed by approximately 3,000 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support personnel, and hosts 4,000 guest investigators every year. Discoveries made at the lab have won six Nobel Prizes.

The laboratory has its own police station, fire department, and postal code (11973). In total, the lab spans a convert|5265|acre|km2|0|sing=on area.

Major programs

Although originally conceived as a nuclear research facility. Its mission has greatly expanded. Its focus now is:

* Nuclear and high-energy physics [http://www.bnl.gov/physics/]
* Physics and chemistry of materials [http://www.bnl.gov/bes/default.asp]
* Environmental [http://www.bnl.gov/des/] and energy research [http://www.bnl.gov/est/main_e.asp]
* Nonproliferation [http://www.bnl.gov/nns/]
* Neurosciences and medical imaging [http://www.bnl.gov/ctn/]
* Structural biology [http://www.biology.bnl.gov/]

Major facilities

*Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) (until 2008 the world's biggest particle accelerator) that was designed to research quark-gluon plasma [http://www.bnl.gov/rhic/]
*Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) for study nanoscale materials [http://www.bnl.gov/cfn/]
*National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) (the lab's most popular machine which is said to have attracted more researchers in the world than any other machine) [http://www.nsls.bnl.gov/]
*Alternating Gradient Synchrotron (particle accelerator that was used in three of the lab's Nobel prize research) [http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/facilities/AGS.asp]
*Accelerator Test Facility (generates, accelerates and monitors particle beams) [http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/facilities/ATF.asp]
*Tandem Van de Graaff (once the world's largest electrostatic accelerator) [http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/facilities/TVdG.asp]

Off site contributions

It is a contributing partner to ATLAS experiment, one of the four detectors to be located at a new powerful nuclear accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). It is currently under construction near Geneva, Switzerland.

Brookhaven is also responsible for the design of the SNS accumulator ring in partnership with Spallation Neutron Source in Oakridge, Tennessee.

Visitation

The lab is open to the public on Sundays during the summer for tours and special programs, helping its connection with the surrounding community. The program is referred to as 'Summer Sundays' and takes place from mid-July to mid-August. It features, most notably, a science show and a tour of the facilities. The laboratory also hosts science fairs, science bowls, and robotics competitions for schools in the surrounding area. Per year the Lab estimates that it enhances the science education of roughly 24,000 kindergarten to 12th grade LI students, more than 100 undergraduates, and 550 teachers from across the nation.

Nobel Prizes

Nobel Prize in Physics

* 1957 - Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee - parity laws [http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/nobel/nobel_57.asp]
* 1976 - Samuel C. C. Ting - Psi particle [http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/nobel/nobel_76.asp]
* 1980 - James Cronin and Val Logsdon Fitch - CP-violation [http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/nobel/nobel_80.asp]
* 1988 - Leon M. Lederman, Melvin Schwartz, Jack Steinberger - [http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/nobel/nobel_88.asp] - Neutrino
* 2002 - Raymond Davis, Jr. - Neutrino [http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/nobel/nobel_02.asp]

Nobel Prize in Chemistry

* 2003 - Roderick MacKinnon - Ion channel [http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/nobel/nobel_03.asp]

ee also

* First Video Game

References

* [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/8.05/rhic.html "Dr. Strangelet or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Big Bang"]

External links

* [http://www.bnl.gov Brookhaven National Lab Official Website]
* [http://www.physicstoday.org/jan00/washdoe.htm Physics Today: DOE Shuts Brookhaven Lab’s HFBR in a Triumph of Politics Over Science]
** [http://www.bnl.gov/community/summer_sunday.asp Summer Sundays 2005 tour at Brookhaven National Laboratory]
* [http://alsos.wlu.edu/qsearch.aspx?browse=places/Brookhaven,+New+York Annotated bibliography for Brookhaven Laboratory from the Alsos Digital Library for Nuclear Issues]
* [http://www.newsday.com/news/opinion/ny-vpbnl155130778mar15,0,4961133.story?coll=ny-editorials-headlines Headlines]