 In September 1940 , Rabi became a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the U.S. Army 's Ballistic Research Laboratory . That month , the British Tizard Mission brought a number of new technologies to the United States , including a cavity magnetron , a high @-@ powered device that generates microwaves using the interaction of a stream of electrons with a magnetic field . This device , which promised to revolutionize radar , demolished any thoughts the Americans had entertained about their technological leadership . Alfred Lee Loomis of the National Defense Research Committee decided to establish a new laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to develop this radar technology . The name Radiation Laboratory was chosen as both unremarkable and a tribute to the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory . Loomis recruited Lee DuBridge to run it . 
