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n July of 1995, we asked the Regents of the University of California to add the
word "national" to the official name of the Laboratory. This was more than a
symbolic gesture. Today, perhaps more than at any time in its history, the Ernest
Orlando Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is applying its scientific
excellence and research facilities to advance the frontiers of science and to
solve a broad spectrum of national problems. Whether it is to gain a better
understanding of our world, improve our environment and health, or develop
technologies with long-term value for the economy, Berkeley Lab is truly national
in scope, and international in distinction.
The Laboratory's accomplishments in 1995 offer persuasive evidence to support our
commitment. In 1995 the world's most powerful instrument for analyzing gamma ray
spectra-the Gammasphere-was dedicated at Berkeley Lab, where it was conceived,
designed and built. The Laboratory's newest national user facility will be host
to scientists from throughout the nation and the world who will seek new insights
into nuclear structure.
It was a year that witnessed groundbreaking for Berkeley Lab's new Human Genome
Laboratory, where levels of sequencing productivity will be the highest in the
world. The new laboratory will bring together under one roof all of the many
research teams that make up our Human Genome Center, one of the three Department
of Energy centers dedicated to the national effort to decipher the genetic code.
Work at the new laboratory will provide biological and medical researchers across
the nation with an unprecedented asset for the diagnosis and prevention of cancer
and thousands of other diseases.
It was another year of growth and accomplishment for the Advanced Light Source,
with the opening of four new beamlines. Now overcommitted to users on its
existing twelve beamlines, the ALS is poised to open five more beamlines in 1996
with the help of the DOE Research Facilities Initiative, approved in 1995. The
ALS has begun an era of scientific programs at the forefront of materials
research, chemical dynamics, and structural biology, to address national needs
for instrumentation in macromolecular and subcellular structure determination.
Perhaps the most important event for the future of scientific inquiry at the
Laboratory has been the Department of Energy's selection of Berkeley Lab as the
home of the National Energy Research Supercomputing Center. We plan to create a
new environment for supercomputing by integrating science and large scale
computing as a major cornerstone for the future of scientific research at the
Laboratory. Our vision of the future is to build a computing environment which is
driven by scientific need and scientific research, utilizing the cutting edge
capability of advanced supercomputing analysis. We want to measure our success by
new discoveries and understanding in such fields as materials and combustion,
molecular structure, fusion, particle physics, and theoretical biology, to name a
few.
Another important component of the center will be the ESnet, which will
connect our computing capability to other DOE facilities and participating
universities.
Other national facilities at Berkeley Lab, including the 88-Inch Cyclotron
and the National Center for Electron Microscopy, continue to attract users from
academia and industry who seek assistance in probing the mysteries of atomic and
sub-atomic worlds. And our diverse mix of scientific programs offers synergistic
approaches to improving the country's efforts in energy efficiency and supply,
environmental remediation, materials design, and many other areas.
Berkeley Lab's distinctive university affiliations, in particular those with the
University of California, build on our historic alliance with UC Berkeley and
position us to contribute to programs at hundreds of universities nationwide. Our
collaborations with other government agencies, including the National Institutes
of Health, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the
Environmental Protection Agency, add value for all of our citizens, as is fully
appropriate for this unique multiprogram national laboratory.
This 1995 report focuses on some of the specific ways Berkeley Lab has
contributed to the fabric of research and scientific achievement in America. At
the same time, it highlights our commitments to local and regional education and
quality of life, and notes the progress we have made in our management goal to
deliver the best research support services at the lowest cost.
With fundamental research as our foundation, Berkeley Lab will continue to
maintain and enhance its distinctive capabilities to serve the scientific needs
of the nation. Officially adding "national" to our name appropriately
acknowledges this ongoing leadership commitment.
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