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Research Laboratory of Electronics

Established	1946
Address	77 Massachusetts Avenue
Location	Cambridge, Massachusetts, MA, United States
Operating agency	Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Website	www.rle.mit.edu

The Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) is an interdisciplinary research center at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) founded in 1946 as a successor to the wartime Radiation Laboratory (“Rad Lab”). RLE was among MIT’s first modern interdepartmental research centers and has been noted for its role in advancing electronics, information theory, photonics, acoustics, and later quantum engineering.

History

Origins (1940s)

RLE traces its institutional origins to the Rad Lab, which organized large-scale wartime research in radar and microwave electronics. After World War II, MIT and U.S. defense agencies sought to preserve the Rad Lab’s basic research capability in peacetime, leading to the reconstitution of the Basic Research Division as the Research Laboratory of Electronics in 1946. Early RLE work spanned communication theory, acoustics, and electronics, reflecting the Rad Lab’s interdisciplinary model.

In 1946–47, RLE received support through the newly formed Joint Services Electronics Program (JSEP), a peacetime collaboration of the U.S. armed services with universities to fund unclassified basic research in electronics. Contemporary accounts and subsequent scholarship have interpreted postwar centers like RLE as emblematic of the emerging “military–industrial–academic” nexus in U.S. science policy.

Building 20 and the interdisciplinary model

RLE initially occupied spaces in MIT’s temporary wartime structures, notably “Building 20,” which became associated with flexible, interdisciplinary research cultures at MIT. The building was demolished in 1998 as part of campus renewal following documentation by the Cambridge Historical Commission.

Expansion and influence (1950s–1990s)

RLE faculty and students contributed to areas that later became distinct laboratories and programs at MIT. Lincoln Laboratory (established 1951) grew from postwar air-defense studies (Project Charles) with roots in the Rad Lab community, while Project MAC (1963) evolved into the Laboratory for Computer Science and the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and was later merged as CSAIL in 2003. RLE-affiliated research groups also helped seed activities that became the Plasma Science and Fusion Center.

MIT News’s retrospectives for RLE’s 50th anniversary highlighted earlier accomplishments associated with RLE personnel, including the first practical atomic clock, early work in LISP, communication theory, and television/imaging research.

Recent developments (2000–present)

RLE today spans multiple buildings on the MIT campus and supports research themes that include atomic physics; information science and systems; quantum communication and computation; energy, power and electromagnetics; photonic materials, devices and systems; nanoscale materials, devices and systems; and biomedical science and engineering. The laboratory collaborates broadly across MIT departments and with external partners in government and industry.

Mission and research

RLE’s mission is to conduct fundamental and applied research in electronics and information technologies and to train students through cross-disciplinary collaboration. Current research themes (as enumerated by MIT’s official catalog) include:

• Atomic physics
• Information science and systems
• Quantum communication and computation
• Energy, power and electromagnetics
• Photonic materials, devices and systems
• Nanoscale materials, devices and systems
• Biomedical science and engineering

Organization

RLE is an interdepartmental laboratory administered by MIT and drawing faculty principally from Engineering (notably EECS) and Science (including Physics). It occupies research and administrative space across several buildings on MIT’s Cambridge campus.

Notable contributions and people

MIT News’s 50th-anniversary coverage and associated histories attribute to RLE personnel (or to projects housed in RLE) significant advances including: the first practical atomic clock; development and early demonstrations in LISP; communication theory and statistical signal processing; television and imaging systems; and early interactive computing experiments (e.g., TX-0 at MIT). The laboratory and its alumni community have also been associated with later prize-winning work in areas such as laser cooling and trapping of atoms and gravitational-wave detection, among others; some of this work took place in other MIT units but involved individuals who trained or worked in RLE.

A partial list of associated people includes Norbert Wiener, Claude Shannon, Jerome Wiesner, Julius A. Stratton, Amar Bose, Robert Noyce, Robert Gallager, Wolfgang Ketterle, Rainer Weiss, and others noted in MIT sources.

Relationship to other MIT units

• MIT Lincoln Laboratory – established in 1951 with roots in Rad Lab/RLE-era work on air defense and radar.
• CSAIL – formed in 2003 from the merger of the AI Lab and LCS; both trace back to Project MAC (1963), which involved personnel and ideas overlapping with RLE’s computing and information research of the period.
• Plasma Science and Fusion Center – formed in the 1970s with contributions from research communities at MIT that included RLE-associated plasma and electromagnetics groups.

See also

• MIT Radiation Laboratory
• MIT Lincoln Laboratory
• MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
• Plasma Science and Fusion Center

Further reading

• Leslie, Stuart W. (1993). The Cold War and American Science: The Military–Industrial–Academic Complex at MIT and Stanford. Columbia University Press. ISBN 978-0231081598. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: checksum (help)
• "Historic MIT lab celebrates 50th with symposium". MIT News. October 30, 1996.