Associated Universities, Inc.

Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI) is a not-for-profit science management corporation that operates the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) under a Cooperative Agreement with the National Science Foundation (NSF). Corporate headquarters are located in Washington, DC. The President is its Chief Executive Officer.

It had a contract from the Atomic Energy Commission and then the U.S. Department of Energy to build and maintain the Brookhaven National Laboratory from 1947 until 1998 when Associated lost the contract in the wake of a scandal when tritium leaked into the Long Island Central Pine Barrens groundwater on which it sits. During its tenure at Brookhaven, its scientists at the laboratory won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957, 1976, 1980 and 1988.

History

The Corporation was established in 1946 as an educational institution dedicated to research, development, and education in the physical, biological and engineering sciences. It was granted an absolute charter by the Board of Regents of the State University of New York Education Department; the charter called for AUI to "acquire, plan, construct and operate laboratories and other facilities" that would unite the resources of universities, other research organizations and the Federal Government. It was envisioned that AUI would create facilities and laboratories so large, complex, and costly as to be outside the scope of a single university. These facilities were to be made available on a competitive basis to all qualified scientists without regard to affiliation, as well as to resident scientific staff. From 1947 until 1998, AUI was responsible for the management of the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), a multi-disciplinary science research center located on Long Island, New York.

Nine northeastern universities joined in sponsoring AUI in 1946: Columbia University, Cornell University, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, The University of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, The University of Rochester, and Yale University. Over the years, AUI has taken on a broad national character with a diversified Board of Trustees from universities and other institutions across the country. At the same time, the nine founding universities remain represented, although ties to their administrations are not of a formal nature.

External links

* [http://www.aui.edu aui.edu]