In 1946, the United States was on the cusp of a new energy age.
Chartered to study peaceful uses for atomic power, the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne National Laboratory helped usher in that pivotal era. Just over five years after its founding on July 1, 1946, the lab designed and operated the world’s first usable electricity from nuclear energy, illuminating four light bulbs at its Experimental Breeder Reactor-I.
Those four glowing bulbs gave way to an industry that today powers countries around the world, including the U.S., where nuclear energy accounts for about one-fifth of the national electricity supply. But nuclear science is just one part of Argonne’s history of groundbreaking research. The lab has expanded far beyond its initial charter to become a leading research institution in supercomputing, quantum information science, X-ray science, advanced manufacturing, energy storage and fundamental research in materials science, physics and other fields.
The University of Chicago has managed Argonne since the lab's founding as an outgrowth of the Manhattan Project. Since 2005, the lab has been operated through UChicago Argonne, LLC, whose contract the DOE renewed in 2026 for another five years.
On the edge of its 80th anniversary, the lab has had some of its biggest developments yet. In 2025, it launched the Aurora exascale supercomputer, capable of performing more than a quintillion calculations per second. That’s an almost unimaginable leap from the lab’s first digital computer in 1953, AVIDAC, a pioneering machine for its time.
Also in 2025, the upgraded Advanced Photon Source (APS), a DOE Office of Science user facility, set a new world record for electron beam emittance, confirming its status as the brightest synchrotron X-ray light source in the world. And Q-NEXT, a DOE National Quantum Information Science Research Center led by Argonne, in partnership with DOE’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, was renewed for another five years.
The APS is one of five flagship DOE Office of Science user facilities at Argonne that enable nearly 8,000 users annually to conduct critically important research. These also include Aurora’s home, the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility; the Center for Nanoscale Materials, where scientists engineer matter at the atomic scale for advances in quantum science, microelectronics and ultrasensitive sensors; and the Argonne Tandem Linac Accelerator System (ATLAS), where researchers study the structure of atomic nuclei and the forces that govern matter in the universe. In 2025, ATLAS marked its 40th year of operation.
But facilities are only part of the equation. Breakthroughs emerge from the combination of exceptional people, powerful tools and increasingly intelligent scientific systems. In addition to employing world-class scientific and technical staff, Argonne has forged relationships with top universities, companies and the community of researchers who depend on the lab’s powerful tools.
These ties not only bring ideas into the lab but also transform them into real-world innovations that benefit society: better batteries, more efficient engines, new medicines and more.
Looking to the 21st century—and beyond
Science and technology have dramatically changed daily life over the past 80 years, but AI promises to pack even more advances into ever shorter time frames. Argonne is helping lead the way, playing a key role in DOE’s Genesis Mission to transform American science and innovation through AI. The lab will continue to innovate in autonomous discovery, integrating AI with automation and robotics, creating systems that can rapidly design, conduct and refine experiments, dramatically accelerating the pace of scientific discovery.
Argonne and the Argonne Quantum Institute are also a driving force within a growing quantum science hub in the Midwest, uncovering the foundational knowledge needed to build an entirely different way of sensing, processing and storing information.
At the same time, ongoing work at the lab seeks to boost energy storage research, development and deployment; strengthen and secure critical-mineral and critical-materials supply chains; develop next-generation nuclear reactors and safeguard the electric grid. Through these and other endeavors, the U.S. benefits from its long history of investment in world-leading science.
The lab’s 80th anniversary celebration includes OutLoud lectures throughout the year and an AI Roadshow with live conversations and panels in Chicagoland communities.
—This article was originally published on the Argonne website.