Coordinated Science Laboratory

The Coordinated Science Laboratory (CSL) was established in 1951 as a small-scale, military-funded initiative to advance American efforts in the Korean War. But CSL long outlived that conflict—and in time became one of the world’s premier multidisciplinary research laboratories.

Published in honor of CSL’s seventy-fifth anniversary, this book reveals how the institution evolved into a rich research ecosystem that pursues a wide range of diverse projects. CSL’s work to date has given rise to dozens of startups, thousands of careers, and countless innovations in communications, robotics, computing, and other areas of science and technology. As the stories in this book show, CSL brings together diverse minds from across disciplines to solve some of the world’s most complex challenges. Indeed, the institution’s history is interwoven with the histories of industry, national security, and the familiar everyday technologies that connect and empower our world.