Brookhaven National Laboratory has a history of outstanding scientific achievement that spans more than five decades. The Laboratory's research staff has pioneered the fields of nuclear technology, high energy physics, medicine and more. Brookhaven has been home to three research reactors, numerous one-of-a-kind particle accelerators, and other amazing research machines. This web-based history of Brookhaven is designed to be browsed in any order you choose.

Brookhaven Town History. The first residents of the Town of Brookhaven were Algonkian-speaking Native Americans, the Setalcotts (or Setaukets), and the Unkechaugs. The boundaries of the Town of Brookhaven coincide almost exactly with the tribal lands of these two groups or “tribes.”

English settlers arrived on the north shore of the Town in 1655. The six men, land agents, purchased eight square miles stretching from Stony Brook to Port Jefferson in exchange for tools, wampum, lead, powder and "1 pair of children's stockings." The first settlers came from eastern Long Island and New England. The first settlement was named after the native Americans it was purchased from: Setauket. More land purchases followed over the years, and in 1666, after Long Island became a part of the Colony of New York, Governor Richard Nicholl granted a Patent, which fixed the name of Brookhaven, confirmed title to the lands already purchased, and allowed for additional purchases. In 1686, Governor Thomas Dongan issued a Patent which granted extensive powers to the Town, and established a representative form of government.

Early Brookhaven residents were engaged in farming, fishing and whaling. By the nineteenth century, the shipbuilding, and cordword industries became important as well. The advent of the Long Island Railroad in the mid-nineteenth century through the Town of Brookhaven made travel and transport of goods and materials easier and faster. The history of the United States of America includes many residents of the Town of Brookhaven. William Floyd of Mastic was a signer of the Declaration of Independence; General George Washington relied on information supplied by a spy ring, which operated out of Setauket, during the War for American Independence; and Camp Upton in Yaphank was used during World War I and World War II as a training area for soldiers. The Town of Brookhaven has seen its residents represent our country in every major conflict.

The twentieth century witnessed the Town of Brookhaven expand from an agrarian community to a leader in communications, technology, and education. Home now to Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Stony Brook University and Health Sciences Center, Brookhaven stands proudly at the forefront of the world's leading research fields, while its 480,000 residents can still appreciate its natural resources and beauty that brought the original settlers over 350 years ago.

The Founding of Brookhaven. In 1946, representatives from nine major eastern universities — Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, University of Rochester, and Yale — formed a nonprofit corporation to establish a new nuclear-science facility, and they chose a surplus army base “way out on Long Island” as the site. Thus, Brookhaven National Laboratory was born. On March 21, 1947, the U.S. War Department transferred the site of Camp Upton on Long Island to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC), which was the federal agency that oversaw the founding of Brookhaven National Laboratory and was a predecessor to the present U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The AEC provided the initial funding for Brookhaven’s research into the peaceful uses of the atom, with the goal of improving public well-being.

Brookhaven Lab was conceived to promote basic research in the physical, chemical, biological and engineering aspects of the atomic sciences. An equally important concept was the establishment of a national laboratory in the Northeast to design, construct and operate large scientific machines that individual institutions could not afford to develop on their own. The Laboratory was also to resemble a university to the greatest extent possible.

Today, Brookhaven Lab is one of ten national laboratories under DOE’s Office of Science, which provides the majority of the Laboratory’s research dollars and direction. Founded in 1977 as the 12th cabinet-level department, DOE oversees much of the science research in this country through its Office of Science.

One of ten national laboratories overseen and primarily funded by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Brookhaven National Laboratory conducts research in the physical, biomedical, and environmental sciences, as well as in energy technologies and national security. Brookhaven Lab also builds and operates major scientific facilities available to university, industry and government researchers. Brookhaven is operated and managed for DOE's Office of Science by Brookhaven Science Associates, a limited-liability company founded by Stony Brook University, the largest academic user of Laboratory facilities, and Battelle, a nonprofit, applied science and technology organization.

Established in 1947 on Long Island, Upton, New York, Brookhaven is a multi-program national laboratory operated by Brookhaven Science Associates for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Six Nobel Prizes have been awarded for discoveries made at the Lab.

Brookhaven has a staff of approximately 3,000 scientists, engineers, technicians and support staff and over 4,000 guest researchers annually.

Brookhaven National Laboratory's role for the DOE is to produce excellent science and advanced technology with the cooperation, support, and appropriate involvement of our scientific and local communities. The fundamental elements of the Laboratory's role in support of the four DOE strategic missions are the following:

• To conceive, design, construct, and operate complex, leading edge, user-oriented facilities in response to the needs of the DOE and the international community of users.

• To carry out basic and applied research in long-term, high-risk programs at the frontier of science.

• To develop advanced technologies that address national needs and to transfer them to other organizations and to the commercial sector.

• To disseminate technical knowledge, to educate new generations of scientists and engineers, to maintain technical capabilities in the nation's workforce, and to encourage scientific awareness in the general public.
 Major programs:

·        Nuclear and high-energy physics

·        Physics and chemistry of materials 

·        Environmental and energy research

·        Nonproliferation

·        Neurosciences and medical imaging

·        Structural biology

Economic Impact of Brookhaven National Laboratory on the New York State. Economic consultant Dr. Pearl Kamer has released her new study, "The Economic Impact of Brookhaven National Laboratory on the New York State Economy." Dr. Kamer serves as Chief Economist of the Long Island Association, where she tracks national, regional and local economic trends.

In addition to describing a general overview of the Laboratory, her study shows the direct and secondary economic impacts of the Laboratory’s spending in a three-layered approach reflecting the past decade, fiscal year 2004 and a ten-year future projection.

Some report highlights:

In fiscal years 1993 to 2003, the Laboratory injected more than $4.76 billion in direct spending into the New York State economy. This increased the state’s output of goods and services by almost $9.2 billion and created almost 79,000 secondary jobs in the state.

In FY04 alone, the Laboratory’s direct spending of $454.4 million resulted in the expansion of New York State’s total output of goods and services by more than $880 million and created more than 7,700 secondary jobs statewide.

Projected spending for fiscal years 2005 through 2014 could total almost $5.6 billion. More than 91,000 jobs would be created statewide, and virtually all industries, including some of the state’s key manufacturing industries, would benefit from this spending.

Brookhaven Lab annually hosts an estimated 3,500 visiting scientists who use the Laboratory’s world-class facilities to advance their research. More than 30 percent of the visiting scientists are from New York State universities and businesses. These visiting scientists generally live on or near the Laboratory site and help to fuel the local economy.

Brookhaven Lab invites industry to develop and market the inventions it has patented. Of the 162 inventions in BSA’s patent portfolio over the last 15 years, 96 were licensed and 63 were commercialized in the fields of molecular biology, pharmaceuticals, instrumentation, environmental technologies, and electronics – industries that New York relies on to form the core of a growing technology base.

Vasil Sidorov on September 14, 2009  E-mail: sidorovvasil@gmail.com

From Brookhaven National Lab