Brookhaven National Laboratory

Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) is a national research center located on Long Island in New York State.

The laboratory was established in 1947 on the site of the former Camp Upton military base and has been continuously developed since then. The original umbrella organization of the BNL was the United States Atomic Energy Commission. Today, it is operated and funded by its successor, the US Department of Energy. The laboratory employs about 3000 permanent staff. In addition, about 4500 visiting scientists travel to BNL each year.

From its inception, BNL's research program has been strongly oriented toward the operation and use of large-scale research facilities. In the 1950s and 1960s, several research reactors came on line (including the Brookhaven Graphite Research Reactor and the High Flux Beam Reactor), which were used to conduct experiments in nuclear and materials research and to produce radionuclides for biological and medical research, among other things. During the same period, two proton accelerators for elementary particle physics (the Cosmotron and the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron) were commissioned. In the 1970s, the National Synchrotron Light Source was added, providing intense X-rays for a wide range of research areas and used by both BNL scientists and a growing group of external research groups; in the 1990s, beamlines for the infrared spectral region were also installed. Following the decommissioning of these facilities, BNL now operates two large-scale research facilities of international importance: the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) for heavy ion and elementary particle physics, and the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II) as a source of synchrotron radiation for a variety of research areas.

A total of seven Nobel Prizes have been awarded for discoveries directly related to Brookhaven National Laboratory. These include the first observation of the J/ψ meson (Physics Nobel Prize 1976), the discovery of the muon neutrino (Physics Nobel Prize 1988), the detection of cosmic neutrinos (Physics Nobel Prize 2002) and the elucidation of the structure and function of the ribosome (Chemistry Nobel Prize 2009). Today, BNL's research portfolio ranges from basic research in physics, chemistry and life sciences to application-oriented issues in energy and environmental research.

Location

BNL is located on eastern Long Island, approximately 100 kilometers as the crow flies from downtown New York City. The BNL complex covers a total area of 21.3 square kilometers and is surrounded by the western foothills of the Long Island Central Pine Barrens, a forested area covering approximately 425 square kilometers. Two kilometers south of BNL is Interstate 495 coming from New York City, and another three kilometers south is Brookhaven Airport, operated by Brookhaven County. Seven kilometers east of the Laboratory is Calverton Executive Airpark, which is used exclusively for private purposes. In addition, the Lab is connected to the rail network by the New York and Atlantic Railway, established in 1997. The nearest towns are Patchogue, about 18 kilometres to the southwest, and Riverhead, about 19 kilometres to the east.

Organization

The laboratory is one of ten major laboratories operated by the US government and is overseen and almost fully funded by the United States Department of Energy. In 2017, BNL's budget amounted to approximately 582 million US dollars (approximately 521 million euros). The laboratory is led by a director and two deputy directors, who are responsible for research and the administration of the laboratory, respectively. Acting Director Doon Gibbs was appointed Interim Director in December 2012 and then Laboratory Director in 2013.

The laboratory employs about 3000 permanent staff. Approximately 4500 users visit the Laboratory's large-scale research facilities annually. The Laboratory is divided into a total of eight Directorates, each headed by an Associate Laboratory Director (ALD). The directorates are subdivided into departments (Departments or Divisions for larger and smaller organizational units, respectively); the department heads report to the respective ALD. In the research departments, the lowest organizational level consists of research groups, usually with a senior scientist as group leader. Another element of the organization is staff positions that report directly to the Laboratory Director. These include the Planning Office, the Legal Office, Internal Audit and Counterintelligence.