History of Bell Labs Physical Research, 1980–2006
Bell Labs headquarters in Murray Hill, New Jersey.
Photo by John Gates.
As one of the world’s foremost industrial research and development centers, Bell Laboratories has long been renowned for its multitude of contributions to science and technology. This history guide collects essays written by former researchers at the labs, focusing on work in the physical sciences that was conducted there between about 1980 and 2006.
The history of this more recent time period has until now been nearly unexplored, as the bulk of attention has focused on earlier eras. For example, the book Crystal Fire by Michael Riordan and Lillian Hoddeson details the invention and development of the transistor in the 1940s and 1950s. Three Degrees Above Zero by Jeremy Bernstein chronicled several major discoveries, including that of the cosmic microwave background in 1964, which gave the book its title. Jon Gertner’s The Idea Factory presents a series of vignettes, all from the pre-1980 period, showcasing Bell Labs as a source of large-scale planned technological innovation and a counterpoint to the Silicon Valley lore of entrepreneurs toiling in garages.
Presenting a more complete history, AT&T published A History of Engineering and Science in the Bell System, a multi-volume account of research conducted there between 1925 and 1980. The volume on physical sciences research was edited by Sid Millman, who directed the labs’ Physical Sciences Division for two decades. In that era, Bell Labs cultivated a research culture that offered intellectual freedom and patient support in the belief that the future of telecommunication would need new science.
That culture extended into the era after 1980, and the broader goal of this guide is to illuminate how that culture worked by exploring the origins of the science that was conducted there, how it developed, and how close interactions among leading researchers produced surprises with great regularity. While the primary audience for the guide is scientists, these accounts are intended to be read by audiences with a more general interest in science and technology as well. The guide begins, roughly, where Millman’s volume left off, extends through Bell Labs’ transition from AT&T to Lucent Technologies in 1996, and concludes with the merger of Lucent and Alcatel in 2006. It cannot be a complete history, because the scientists who conducted the work are now scattered, retired, or regrettably passed on. However, starting from a small set of essays, the aim is to build this collection to be as comprehensive as possible.
The organizers of this effort are Arthur Ramirez, Cherry Murray, and David Bishop.
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