Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has released its second episode of the "Big Ideas Lab" Podcast, taking a look at some of the pivotal world events that led to the Lab's founding in 1952, such as the Manhattan Project, the Soviet Union's detonation of an atomic bomb in 1949 and the Cold War.
Former Lab Director Bruce Tarter and LLNL experimental physicist Tom Ramos highlight the efforts of Nobel Prize winner Ernest Orlando Lawrence in establishing what was then known as the "University of California Radiation Lab, Livermore campus" in September 1952.
Ramos, the author of the book "From Berkeley to Berlin: How the Rad Lab Helped Avert Nuclear War," expounded how Lawrence, as far back as the late 1930s, alerted U.S. government officials to Nazi Germany's threat of an atomic bomb.
"Ernest Lawrence had a passion for science, he had a passion for the defense of the country, he had a passion for America," Ramos said.
Tarter, who served as the Lab's eighth director from 1994 to 2002 and who wrote the 2018 book "The American Lab: An Insider's History of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory," discussed Edward Teller's and Lawrence's roles in the Lab's founding.
Basically, the creation of Livermore was in response to Teller's unrelenting quest for a second laboratory in addition to Los Alamos. And Lawrence's prestige and his existing radiation lab made it the perfect choice.
"Almost every one of the first hundred people through the gate on opening day had been a part of Lawrence's radiation laboratory at the University of California at Berkeley. And so, the entire culture was Lawrence's. And Lawrence's culture still maintains today," Tarter said.
Tune in to the latest episode of the "Big Ideas Lab" Podcast and learn more about the world events that led to the founding of LLNL, the Lab's early days and how it got its start as one of the world's premier science and technology hubs.
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