We solve complex research, engineering, and analytical problems that present critical challenges to our nation. APL—the nation’s largest university affiliated research center—provides U.S. government agencies with deep expertise in specialized fields to support national priorities and technology development programs. We also serve as independent trusted technical agents to the government, providing continuity for highly complex, multigenerational technology development systems.
Our purpose is to make critical contributions to critical challenges. At APL, we feel it is our responsibility to try to solve these national challenges with the full measure of our dedication and expertise.
The Lab’s core values are unquestionable integrity, trusted service to the nation, world-class expertise, and game-changing impact—all in an environment that is collaborative, fulfilling (and even fun!).
APL’s purpose and core values guide our future, and it is no less than to create defining innovations that ensure our nation’s preeminence in the 21st century.
January 11, 2023
Using NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a team led by researchers at Johns Hopkins APL confirmed the discovery of an exoplanet — a planet orbiting another star — orbiting a red dwarf star roughly 41 light-years away — and it’s almost exactly the size of Earth.
January 11, 2023
For the second year in a row, APL was honored with a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award as one of the top 100 Best Places to Work among large U.S. companies.
January 10, 2023
Scientists with NASA’s Parker Solar Probe mission think they have discovered the processes that give birth to streams of charged particles — called the solar wind — released from the Sun’s corona, or upper atmosphere.
January 10, 2023
Scientists, mathematicians and engineers at APL are building a new cybersecurity paradigm that’s suited to the realities of how computing and collaborating are done in the 21st century. Their work has applications in health care, weapons systems and space, as well as in protecting critical infrastructure and industry generally.
January 9, 2023
Moving across the country at 19 years old is no small feat, but Anika Mistry, who interned at Johns Hopkins APL last summer, was up for the challenge.
January 5, 2023
APL researchers have given aerobatic fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) the ability to autonomously navigate complex environments using onboard sensing, a first-of-its-kind achievement.
January 4, 2023
A team at APL recently studied the potential impact of climate change on communications and remote sensing systems like radars, and determined that severe changes in Earth’s climate would likely affect these technologies — in some cases for better, in others for worse.
December 21, 2022
Johns Hopkins Engineering for Professionals, a collaboration between APL and the Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering (WSE), has launched one of the only fully online Robotics and Autonomous Systems master’s programs in the nation, offered within WSE’s Engineering for Professionals program.
December 15, 2022
Since NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft intentionally slammed into the asteroid moonlet Dimorphos on Sept. 26 — altering its orbit by 33 minutes — the investigation team has been digging into the implications of how this planetary defense technique could be used in the future, if such a need should ever arise. DART team members provided a preliminary interpretation of their findings during the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting on Thursday, Dec. 15, in Chicago.
December 15, 2022
Phil Larson has been named as Johns Hopkins APL’s chief government relations officer. He brings 15 years of science and technology policy experience to APL, having served in senior positions in the White House, industry and academia.
December 14, 2022
The eruption of the mostly submerged Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano on Jan. 15, 2022, was among the most powerful in the modern era, creating a massive planet-sized shockwave that reverberated around the globe for days. A new Johns Hopkins APL study shows for the first time that the explosion also blasted water vapor past the boundary of outer space.
