Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory

The Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory, located at 44 Oxford Street, was built in 1937. In 1943, the cyclotron was dismantled and shipped to Los Alamos, N.M. for service in designing the first atomic bombs. After the war, the government did not return the cyclotron; but rather, Harvard received funds from the Office of Naval Research to build a new one, completed in 1949. From then until 1967, physicists from many parts of the world used the machine to increase knowledge about the nature of atoms and their interactions with each other, as well as to treat cancerous tumors. Most recently, the cyclotron laboratory added treatments for certain forms of macular degeneration.