What was the name of the laboratory Carl Sagan directed at Cornell University?

Carl Sagan directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University. The laboratory became an institutional base for his research into planets, atmospheres, planetary surfaces, and the possibility of life beyond Earth.

Sagan joined Cornell in 1968 after Harvard denied him tenure. Cornell’s astronomy department welcomed his broad interests and his growing public profile. He became a full professor in 1970 and directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies, later serving as Cornell’s David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences.

The laboratory’s name is easy to confuse with NASA facilities such as the Jet Propulsion Laboratory or Goddard Space Flight Center. Those were major centers involved in space research and missions, but neither was the Cornell laboratory Sagan directed. At Cornell, Sagan also served as associate director of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research from 1972 to 1981, while contributing to the Mariner, Viking, and Voyager programs.