Biology Department
Brookhaven's Biology Department has an extraordinary combination of strengths in molecular genetics, structural biology, genomics, enzymology, and biotechnology. Department researchers study a diverse set of problems in plant, microbial, and mammalian biology. Current areas of investigation include DNA damage recognition and repair, plant and microbial genomics and proteomics, enzyme engineering, the regulation of gene expression, and the exploration of complex biological structures. See the historic achievements of this department.

Center for Functional Nanomaterials
The Brookhaven National Laboratory Center for Functional Nanomaterials will provide researchers with state-of-the-art capabilities to fabricate and study nanoscale materials. Functional materials are those which exhibit a predetermined chemical or physical response to external stimuli. The Center's focus is to achieve a basic understanding of how these materials respond when in nanoscale form. Nanomaterials--typically on the scale of billionths of a meter--offer different chemical and physical properties than bulk materials, and have the potential to form the basis of new technologies.

Chemistry Department
The Chemistry  Department focuses on PET studies of the human brain, heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysis, studies of gas phase dynamics of reactive species, solar photoconversion and other chemistries.

Collider-Accelerator Department
The Collider-Accelerator Department includes the staff who work to improve the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron, and the Tandem Van de Graaff accelerators, and the physicists who use these tools in their research. See the historic achievements of this department.

Condensed Matter Physics & Materials Science Department
Major efforts of this department include the investigation of properties of superconducting oxides; methods of superconductor characterization and fabrication; the properties of advanced permanent-magnet materials; the synthesis of materials for advanced battery and fuel-cell applications; the investigation of mechanisms of metal passivation and localized corrosion; development and investigation of the properties of cementitious and glassy materials; and advanced methods of electron microscopy to characterize the nanoscale structure of advanced materials.

Energy Sciences & Technology Department
The Energy Sciences & Technology Department conducts basic and applied science, research and development, and technology implementation and deployment to support the DOE objectives of assuring adequate supplies of clean/affordable energy, reducing U.S. vulnerability to supply disruptions, advancing alternative and renewable energy technologies, and increasing energy choices, maintaining U.S. leadership in energy supply and use; and educating new generations of scientists.

Medical Department
BNL physicians work with chemists in the Center for Imaging & Neurosciences to explore the human brain using medical imaging techniques based on medical radioisotopes. Other research projects in the Medical Department are aimed at developing new nuclear medicine treatments and diagnostic agents, producing medical isotopes for clinical use, and understanding and treating cancer and heart disease. See the historic achievements of this department.

National Synchrotron Light Source (NSLS) Department
The NSLS provides one of the world's brightest continuous sources of x-ray and UV radiation for scientific research. This light is a beacon for more than 2,300 scientists from BNL, academia and industry annually, who use it to shed light on everything from the structure of molecules to microchips.

Nonproliferation & National Security
The mission of The Nonproliferation and National Security Department is to carry out research and development, provide technical support, and build prototype systems in order to further U.S. Government initiatives and policies in  Nuclear materials safeguards and security, Arms control treaty verification, Nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction, Material Protection Control and Accountability initiatives for nuclear materials in Russia and the NIS, and related national security areas.

Physics Department
BNL physicists pursue experimental and theoretical discoveries in high-energy, nuclear and solid-state physics, and help design and build many of the world's foremost physics facilities, both at Brookhaven and around the globe.

Instrumentation Division
The Division develops state-of-the-art instrumentation required for experimental research programs at BNL and maintains the expertise and facilities in specialized high technology areas essential for this work. Major areas of effort include semiconductor, gas, and cryogenic detectors, microelectronics, data acquisition hardware, micro and nano-fabrication, optical metrology, and laser and electro-optics. The Division also engages in collaborative research and technology transfer with selected industrial partners.

Superconducting Magnet Division
The BNL Superconducting Magnet Division constructs magnets for use in particle accelerators such as the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider.  Superconducting magnets which must be cooled to temperatures near absolute zero produce stronger magnetic fields and consume less energy than conventional copper wire electromagnets. Building on the magnet designs and construction methods developed for RHIC, this Division is building magnets for use in Europe's Large Hadron Collider and HERA accelerators.

Environmental Sciences Department
Explores our natural environment, and turns scientific ideas into practical applications. The image shown is of the Free Air CO2 Enrichment ecology research center in North Carolina, one of many built around the world by Brookhaven scientists to study the effect of excess atmospheric carbon dioxide on different ecosystems.