Naval Research Lab, District of Columbia

The Naval Research Laboratory is one of the oldest and largest diversified scientific organizations in the country, involved in basic and applied science, relevant to naval technologies. It was established in 1923, and is headquartered on the Potomac, at the southern end of Washington DC, where it has a dense R&D campus. It also has operations at several other federal sites around the country, including Stennis Space Center, Quantico, Brookhaven Lab, and a fleet of aircraft based at Patuxent Naval Air Station. The lab has worked in many fields, including underwater acoustics, sonar, radar, atmospheric science, radio communications, electronic warfare, nuclear research, material science, satellites, nanotechnology and meteorology. It the Navy and Marine Corps corporate research lab, meaning it is operated mostly by civilians working with private companies, and is administered by the Office of Naval Research.