ABSTRACT
In February 1951 Lloyd Berkner began what would become a decade at the head of Associated Universities, Incorporated. AUI and Brookhaven National Laboratory had been created to provide university scientists of the northeastern United States with cutting-edge research equipment that, for reasons of complexity, cost, or association with secret government-controlled technologies (atomic energy, for example), could not be built or acquired by individual researchers and universities. AUI’s emphasis from the start was on basic or fundamental research. But there was always an understanding (sometimes open, sometimes tacit) that in return for federal support AUFs and Brookhaven’s leaders would keep themselves informed about military or other national security requirements and be ready to lend a hand either on an occasional basis or more directly in times of national emergency. 1
