Fermilab

Events & Milestones

This page contains articles on a variety of important events and milestones at the lab and ephemera from those events. It also includes information on the early administrative organization of the lab.

NAL Groundbreaking, December 1, 1968

The lab’s official groundbreaking on December 1, 1968 marked the beginning of construction on the linac, the first part of the lab’s accelerator complex.

Announcement of Renaming NAL

When it was founded in 1967, the lab was originally known simply as the National Accelerator Laboratory. In 1969, the Atomic Energy Commission announced that the lab would be named in honor of physicist Enrico Fermi. The lab held its dedication ceremony in 1974.

The Dedication of the Laboratory

On May 11, 1974, the National Accelerator Laboratory (NAL) became Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory at a dedication ceremony held in front of the lab's new Central Laboratory Building (which was later named Wilson Hall). Within a few weeks of the dedication ceremony, the lab's publications began referring to the lab as Fermilab.

Articles

Documents

Early Organization

This is a collection of articles about the early organizational structure of the lab, its departments, and the Users Organization.

Early URA

On January 17, 1965, the National Academy of Sciences sponsored a meeting of presidents from twenty-five major research universities to discuss the management of the planned 200 GeV accelerator facility that would later become Fermilab. At this meeting, the attendees decided to form the Universities Research Association (URA) to manage the laboratory. URA filed its articles of incorporation on June 21, 1965. J. C. Warner, president of the Carnegie Institute of Technology, served as URA’s first president, and the organization held its first annual meeting on November 7 of that year.

Early Users Meetings

The Users Organization is an organization of scientists and engineers who use facilities and resources provided by the lab for their experiments. It is led by an Executive Committee, the UEC. The organization held its first meeting in April 1967 at Argonne National Laboratory. The Annual Users Meetings held at Fermilab provide a forum for the experimenters to discuss scientific and administrative ideas and concerns.

Miscellaneous Events

Tevatron Dedications