Brookhaven National Laboratory

Brookhaven National Laboratory, center for basic and applied research based on atomic energy. Founded in 1947, it is located at Upton, a part of Brookhaven Town on Long Island, New York, and is operated by the nonprofit Associated Universities, Inc., under a primary contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (formerly the Atomic Energy Commission). The laboratory is dedicated entirely to the peacetime uses of atomic energy and embraces a wide spectrum of research in the physical, life, chemical, and related sciences. Its major research facilities have included the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), a high-flux beam reactor, a medical research reactor, the 33-billion-electron-volt proton Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, a cyclotron (see Particle Accelerators), a vertical accelerator, various Van de Graaff accelerators (see Van de Graaff Generator), and a high-intensity radiation development laboratory.