LBNL

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About LBNL

Photos taken at or from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), in Berkeley, California. These are unofficial, personal photos only.

Go here to view official photos

Historical information in honor of LBNL's 75th anniversary year.

LBNL is a civilian, multidisciplinary research laboratory run by the University of California for the Department of Energy. Its sits on 200 hilly acres above the UC Berkeley campus, and the ties between Campus and Laboratory are strong.

Perched on grassy hills, many points at the lab have views of the Golden Gate, directly opposite; San Francisco, Marin and the profile of Mt. Tamalpias; and Oakland, Emeryville, Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito, and Richmond spreading out before it. The view is inspiring. Watching the low fog roll in through the gate and spill across The Bay, I'm reminded of the daily flow of work and life. On warm summer days, when the tide is just right, a thin ribbon of clouds follows a cold current across the surface of Bay northward and east toward delta. In the Winter, the sun sets behind the profile of San Francisco, and the tall buildings become like 2D cutouts against a hazy layered backdrop. And at two points in between, the sun sets perfectly bisecting the towers of the Golden Gate Bridge. You have to be paying attention because at those times of year, the sun moves by a large step North or South across the horizon every day.

Turning our cameras inward, the scientific machinery of the lab provides endless subject matter. A lot of science today is done on computers. Still more is done with test tubes and pipets. But some of the work that goes on here requires big machines, high power, and industrial apparatus that can be so far removed in our imaginations from the nanostructures and fleeting phenomena that are the subjects of research. Some frontiers of science cannot be pushed forward in University basement laboratories alone. Groups of visionary scientists have banded together to argue for the creation of unique machines that serve the community and have delivered untold numbers of discoveries.

In my experience, the front side of an experiment often looks like it was thrown together with bailing wire and UHV (ultra high vacuum) sticky tape. We build and constantly rebuild the parts we need to get the job done, to do something new, to stay under a tight budget. We innovate, and it shows. But the back sides of experiments are entirely different. They have to be built for reliability, designed to last, designed to work right and to continue working. Those are the industrial back-ends that look like huge fans and cables, power supplies and cooling towers. You can't have the former without the latter, and the design and construction of that machinery shows the pride of the people who build it.

The pictures here show many different sides of the lab. Enjoy.
Kenneth Goldberg
2007

http://www.lbl.gov