The U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) is the corporate research laboratory for the United States Navy and the Marine Corps. It conducts basic and applied research to develop new technologies for naval warfare and national security. NRL is one of the federal government’s oldest scientific organizations, founded in 1923 by Thomas Edison at the request of then-Assistant Secretary of the Navy Theodore Roosevelt Jr.
NRL’s mission is to “provide innovative science and technology that enable superior naval warfighting capabilities and support global security.” As a corporate laboratory, NRL does not have degree-granting authority but focuses its approximately 2,500 employees on high-impact science and technology programs that address critical needs identified by fleet sponsors and leaders.
NRL Headquarters is located in Washington, D.C., with major facilities in Virginia and Maryland. The Laboratory operates 24 hours a day, 365 days a year; however, most visitors are during regular business hours from 8:00am to 5:00pm EST/EDT Monday through Friday except on Federal holidays.
NRL has two field sites located far from DC where much of our experimental work takes place: Stennis Space Center (Mississippi) for rocket propulsion testing and Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (California) for oceanographic research.