Bell Labs
Research and scientific development company / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Nokia Bell Labs, originally named Bell Telephone Laboratories (1925–1984),[1] then AT&T Bell Laboratories (1984–1996)[2] and Bell Labs Innovations (1996–2007),[3] is an American industrial research and scientific development company owned by Finnish company Nokia. With headquarters located in Murray Hill, New Jersey, the company operates several laboratories in the United States and around the world.
![]() Logo since Nokia's acquisition in 2016 | |
![]() Headquarters in Murray Hill, New Jersey (formerly Lucent's head office) | |
Type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Telecommunication, information technology, material science |
Founded | January 1925 (as Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.) |
Headquarters | Murray Hill, New Jersey, U.S. |
Key people | Peter Vetter, Thierry Klein |
Parent | AT&T Corporation (1925–1996) Western Electric (1925–1983) Lucent (1996–2006) Alcatel-Lucent (2006–2016) Nokia (2016–present) |
Website | www |
Researchers working at Bell Laboratories are credited with the development of radio astronomy, the transistor, the laser, the photovoltaic cell, the charge-coupled device (CCD), information theory, the Unix operating system, and the programming languages B, C, C++, S, SNOBOL, AWK, AMPL, and others. Nine Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work completed at Bell Laboratories.[4]
Bell Labs had its origin in the complex corporate organization of the Bell System telephone conglomerate. In the late 19th century, the laboratory began as the Western Electric Engineering Department, located at 463 West Street in New York City. In 1925, after years of conducting research and development under Western Electric, a Bell subsidiary, the Engineering Department was reformed into Bell Telephone Laboratories and placed under the shared ownership of the American Telephone & Telegraph Company (AT&T) and Western Electric. In the 1960s the laboratory was moved to New Jersey. It was acquired by Nokia in 2016.