MIT Radiation Laboratory

The Radiation Laboratory (commonly called the Rad Lab) was a radar research program operating at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during World War II. From 1940 to 1945, the Rad Lab applied new microwave technologies to develop compact radar sets for military navigation and combat. It grew from thirty staff to nearly 4,000 at its peak, with scientific staffing comparable to the Manhattan Project's Los Alamos facility. Operating under contract with the Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), the lab became a prototype for federally funded university research.

The lab was established in October 1940 after an exchange of Allied military secrets revealed the cavity magnetron to the United States. Its staff designed approximately half of the American radar systems deployed during World War II. These systems included the SCR-584 gun-laying radar that destroyed 85 percent of V-1 flying bombs engaged over Britain; the airborne H₂X radar that enabled American strategic bombing through clouds; and LORAN, the first worldwide radio navigation system. Expanding beyond its original program of basic research, the Rad Lab engaged in systems engineering, "crash" manufacturing of experimental equipment, and field support in combat theaters. Most of its systems were built by industrial contractors; 48 percent of all American radar procurement, or $1.3 billion, was for equipment designed by the lab.

Lee DuBridge directed the laboratory, with Isidor Rabi overseeing research operations. It drew physicists and other researchers from sixty-nine universities and received $106.8 million in government contracts, dwarfing MIT's own academic budget and comprising 23 percent of all OSRD research spending. Though a civilian operation, the lab hosted offices and used facilities of both US military branches, and maintained close ties with its British military counterpart, the Telecommunications Research Establishment.

When it closed on December 31, 1945, its functions were dispersed to industry and new interdepartmental laboratories within MIT. The Research Laboratory of Electronics and the Laboratory for Nuclear Science and Engineering continued the basic science mission of the Rad Lab. Later, in 1951, the Lincoln Laboratory was formed to continue to develop air defense systems. The 28-volume MIT Radiation Laboratory Series disclosed the lab's classified discoveries for postwar electronics development. Ten laboratory members later won Nobel Prizes, and its alumni and inventions helped establish Boston's Route 128 high-technology corridor. The lab's fluid structure and its model of civilian-military scientific collaboration had lasting influence in postwar American science.