History

The Historic Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory (PDF)

Wright Lab site plan

Bringing accelerator into Wright Lab

1961	D. Allan Bromley initiates design of the first MP (Emperor) tandem electrostatic accelerator.
1962	Yale submits a proposal for construction of Emperor accelerator to Atomic energy Commission: Construction contract signed with High Voltage Engineering, Dec. 27, 1962.
1964-66	A. W. Wright Nuclear Structure Laboratory and the first MP tandem accelerator at Yale were constructed. Dedication October 5, 1966.
1965-67	Joint Study program involving Wright Laboratory at Yale and T.J. Watson Laboratory of IBM results in state-of-the-art data acquisition and control system at Wright Laboratory.
1974	The performance of MP tandem accelerator was upgraded through installation of new stainless steel acceleration tubes.
1978	A proposal for conversion of Yale MP tandem accelerator to STU status was submitted to Department of Energy.
1982	DOE approves MP-ESTU conversion on July, 1982.
1985	Research activity with MP tandem accelerator was terminated May 29, 1985 and conversion program was initiated.
1987	Terminal potential of 22.4 million volts was reached on July 4, 1987. Dedication of ESTU-1 accelerator facility, August 7, 1987.
2011	Operation of the ESTU tandem ends.
2013	Decommissioning of the ESTU and associated equipment begins. The Wright Lab’s new Director, Karsten Heeger, begins renovations of the facility as well as a new research program in nuclear, particle and astrophysics.
2016	The newly renovated Wright Lab opens for personnel.
2017	The Wright Lab’s public Opening Ceremony is held on May 16, 2017.

Wright Lab

Decommissioning

Yale Wright Laboratory accelerator removal video (2015)

Wright Laboratory Transformed (2017)
Photos from decommissioning project

Wikipedia Links

Yale Wright Laboratory
Science Hill (Yale University)
Arthur Williams Wright
Tandem van de Graaff

Directors of WNSL and Wright Lab

D. Allan Bromley 1961-1989
Peter Parker 1989-1995
Francesco Iachello 1995
Rick Casten 1995-2008
John W. Harris 2008-2010
O. Keith Baker 2010-2013
Karsten Heeger 2013–present

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A. W. Wright

Arthur Williams Wright, for whom Wright Lab is named, held the first Ph.D. in science awarded in the New World. His doctoral dissertation–on satellite mechanics–was one of three accepted by Yale University for the degree in 1861.

Dr. Wright was born in 1836 in Lebanon, Connecticut and received his B.A. degree in 1859. From 1863 to 1868 he taught Latin and then Physics at Yale, returning in 1872 as Professor of Molecular Physics and Chemistry (later changed to Experimental Physics) until his death, in New Haven, in 1915.

Dr. Wright pioneered in many different areas of research in physics and astronomy. He developed the glow discharge preparation of reflecting optics and used these extensively in the first studies of polarization of the solar corona. He first discovered the occurrence of gases in stony meteorites and subjected them to extensive chemical and spectroscopic investigation. Immediately following the discovery of X-radiation, he was the first American to produce and the first to utilize this radiation in his analytic studies.