Early History of Jefferson Laboratory*

This talk will focus on the history of Jefferson Laboratory from its inception as the NEAL proposal by the Southeastern Universities Research Association (SURA) in 1980, to about 1986 -- two years after the arrival of Hermann Grunder and his Berkeley team. Major themes are (i) a national decision to build a high energy, high duty factor electron accelerator for basic nuclear physics research, (ii) open competition established by the DOE, (iii) formation of SURA, and (iv) interest of SURA physicists (particularly at UVA and W{\&}M) in this research. I will discuss the scientific, technical, and political issues that eventually lead to the choice of Newport News as the site and the choice of a recirculating superconducting ring as the final design.