The BNL Chemistry Department: the first twenty years:

Brookhaven, like its sister Laboratories was funded primarily by the Atomic Energy Commission, so that virtually all the research performed here was related to the AEC missions concerning atomic energy. However, the breadth of research themes that fall within this definition was very wide, indeed. Chemistry Department research in its first decades can be categorized into several broad-brush fields, all related to atomic energy. The links immediately below will help define what constitutes these fields. To learn about the work in the Chemistry Department related to these fields, scroll to the links at the bottom of this page.

• Nuclear Chemistry
• Radiation Chemistry
• Isotope Chemistry
• Hot-Atom Chemistry
• Radiochemistry
• Crystallography
• Analytical Chemistry.

The April, 1951 organization chart for the Laboratory lumps the latter  four categories in the Chemistry Department into "General Chemistry". Click on the above links to see what comprises these fields and how they were related to the missions of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Primary records about research programs in the Chemistry Department prior to the 1977 are few. However, there are sufficient summary reports of research from which it is possible to derive snapshots of what the Department, its research and its staff were like. There is a long list of scientific peer reviews and reports to the AEC concerning the BNL Chemistry Department all the way back to its origin. In 1967, Richard W. Dodson, the chairman of the Chemistry Department for its first twenty-one years, compiled a synopsis of research performed during the first twenty years, and it forms a valuable window into that period. Scientific notations may have changed since 1967. Notation is presented as it was written, and tense pertains to the perspective of 1967. Follow the links below for excerpts from that document.

• Chemical Studies Based on Isotope Effects
• Neutron Diffraction Studies in Magnetism
• Chemical Crystallography and Structure
• Thermal Reactions of Systems in Solution
• Radiation Induced Reactions
• Studies of Structure and Reactions by Mass Spectrometry
• Chemical Reactions of Energetic Atoms
• Nuclear Reactions and Structure; Atomic Effects in Nuclear Transitions and Vice Versa
• Radioactivity and Nuclear Reactions Applied to Astrophysics, Particle Physics, Archaeology, and the Study of Art Works.

Last Modified: January 31, 2008

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.

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