Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory

Variant names

Dates:

Establishment 1949

Disestablishment 2002

History notes:

The Harvard Cyclotron Laboratory (HCL), which was located at 44 Oxford Street, was first constructed in 1947 with funds from the Office of Naval Research. The first Harvard cyclotron was a low energy proton cyclotron built in 1937, then dismantled and sent to Los Alamos, N.M. in 1943 for use in the Manhattan Project. After the War had ended, the Office of Naval Research provided the funds to Harvard in order to build a new cyclotron, rather than returning the first. The Laboratory operated from 1949 until 2002, and was most notable for its contributions to the development of proton therapy. Until 1961, the laboratory primarily performed research and development in particle physics, activation analysis, radiobiology, and solid state physics. The use of proton particle accelerators for external beam radiotherapy was largely developed at the facility in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). From 1961 to its closing in 2002, the laboratory provided proton therapy to over 9'000 patients. After 1974, nearly 3'000 patients were treated for eye diseases. By 2002, MGH had acquired its own equipment in order to provide treatment at the Francis H. Burr Proton Therapy Center. The building was demolished in 2003 in preparation for the construction of the Northwest Laboratory Building.