List of United States college laboratories conducting basic defense research

Following World War II, the United States Department of Defense (and in some cases after 1977, the Department of Energy) funded basic scientific research at labs affiliated with a number of colleges and universities. Here is an incomplete list:

Lab	University	Location	Notable work	Refs and notes
Aeronautical and Astronautical Research Laboratory (AARL)	Ohio State University	Columbus, OH	wind tunnels, jet engine test cell design
Ames Laboratory	Iowa State University	Ames, IA	separated and studied rare earth elements
Applied Physics Laboratory	Johns Hopkins	Laurel, MD	development of guided missile technology and drones.
Applied Research Laboratory	Pennsylvania State University	State College, PA	hydrodynamics and acoustics research
Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security	University of Maryland	College Park, MD	social and behavioral sciences, AI, and computing
Argonne Lab	University of Chicago	Lemont, IL	highly sensitive instruments and technologies to detect chemical, biological, and radioactive threats
Cornell Aeronautical Lab	Cornell University	Buffalo, NY	wind tunnel, seat belt testing
Draper Lab	MIT	Cambridge, MA	guidance systems for Project Apollo and the Polaris missile
Fermilab	University of Chicago	Batavia, IL	discovery of the top quark
Georgia Tech Research Institute	Georgia Institute of Technology	Atlanta, GA	Radar, energy and electromagnetics work
Idaho National Laboratory	MIT	Arco, ID	first nuclear-powered electric generator; designed and tested reactors for naval submarines
Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL)	California Institute of Technology	Pasadena, CA	Developed ballistic missiles in its early days and currently collaborates with several US military agencies
Lawrence Berkeley	University of California	Berkeley, CA	Manhattan Project, electromagnetic enrichment of uranium
Lawrence Livermore	University of California	Livermore, CA	home to some of the world's most powerful computer systems
Lincoln Lab	MIT	Lexington, MA	Semi-Automatic Ground Environment (SAGE), TX-0 computer
Los Alamos	University of California	Los Alamos, NM	Manhattan Project
Oak Ridge	University of Tennessee	Oak Ridge, TN	Spallation Neutron Source and the High Flux Isotope Reactor.
Radiation Laboratory	MIT	Cambridge, MA	LORAN
Radio Research Laboratory (RRL)	Harvard University	Cambridge, MA	electronic countermeasures to enemy radars and communications
Sandia	University of California	Albuquerque, NM	reliability and surety of nuclear weapon systems
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory	Stanford University	Menlo Park, CA	charm quark and tau lepton; the longest linear accelerator in the world; development of the klystron
Software Engineering Institute (SEI)	Carnegie Mellon University	Pittsburgh, PA	CMM or CMMI ;CERT/CC
Applied Research Laboratories	University of Texas at Austin	Austin, TX	acoustics, electromagnetics, and information sciences
Weber Research Institute	Polytechnic Institute of New York University	Brooklyn, New York	electromagnetic and microwave defense and communication systems
Information Systems and Internet Security Lab (ISIS)	Polytechnic Institute of New York University	Brooklyn, New York	computer and network security, digital forensics, hardware for secure systems, digital watermarking and steganography
Wireless Internet Center for Advanced Technology (WICAT)	Polytechnic Institute of New York University	Brooklyn, New York	increase network capacity and battery life of terminals, enhance network security, and structure applications to run efficiently over wireless networks.