Lawrence labs celebrate 100th anniversary of Ernest Lawrence's birth

In the long and illustrious history of the University of California, Ernest Orlando Lawrence stands out as one of its most distinguished scholars and certainly its most influential physicist. His invention of the cyclotron in the waning days of 1929 earned him a Nobel Prize, the first to be awarded to a UC faculty member. The invention accelerated the revolution then underway in physics and led to the formation of the great laboratories at Berkeley and Livermore that bear his name today. His multidisciplinary approach to science became the model for national laboratories across the United States. In the years before large scale government funding, as the shadow of world war spread across the oceans, his unselfish willingness to share the resources of his laboratory set a standard for public service to the nation that remains with us today.

On this centennial anniversary of Ernest Orlando Lawrence's birth, the University of California proudly takes note of his great scientific accomplishments and his enduring legacy of public service.

Richard C. Atkinson
President
University of California