On Dec. 27, 1979, the U.S. Congress approved the change of the Laboratory’s name to Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). Earlier that year, the Department of Energy (DOE) was created and assumed the Energy Research and Development Administration’s responsibilities for the national labs.

LLNL was established in 1952 in the early days of the Cold War to meet urgent national security needs by advancing nuclear weapons science and technology.

Their story of success began with a remarkable group of visionaries who set out to be a “big ideas” laboratory committed to a multidisciplinary approach to research pioneered by our cofounder and namesake Ernest O. Lawrence.