The Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory (FBNML) grew out of a mid-1950s collaborative research effort between the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory's Solid State Division's high field research program, directed by Benjamin Lax, and MIT's Magnet Laboratory, directed by Francis Bitter.

The FBNML is a high-field magnetic research laboratory operated and staffed by MIT. The laboratory was established in 1960, with support from the United States Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR), by Benjamin Lax, head of the Solid State Division of MIT's Lincoln Laboratory.

The FBNML is mandated to conduct research into the nature of magnetism and its relationship with matter and energy, to advance the state of high-field magnet research and technology, and to serve as a national high-field magnetic research facility. The laboratory consists of approximately two dozen high-field magnets of varying design and strength. As a national laboratory, the FBNML is funded, through its core proposals, by the National Science Foundation (NSF). While MIT operates the laboratory, its magnet facilities are available to qualified researchers throughout the world. The core grants from the NSF that support the FBNML include funds for the laboratory's visiting scientist program which provides scientists with access to the magnet facilities.

The initial administrative staff of the National Magnet Laboratory consisted of Benjamin Lax, director; Donald T. Stevenson, assistant director; James M. West, assistant director for administration; and Francis Bitter, head of the planning and scientific advisory committees.

The National Magnet Laboratory (NML) was formally dedicated in April 1963 and became operational in October. In 1967 the NML was rededicated as the MIT Francis Bitter National Magnet Laboratory in honor of Francis Bitter, who had died in July. Bitter, an MIT faculty member for 33 years, had been a pioneer in high-field magnetism research. In the 1930s Bitter founded the MIT Magnet Laboratory.

In 1970 the FBNML, in conjunction with the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics, embarked on the design and construction of a fusion reactor. The project, sponsored by the United States Atomic Energy Commission, produced the Alcator A thermonuclear machine which became operational in 1973. Five years later a larger, more powerful machine, Alcator C, became operational. These two machines were part of the United States effort to develop thermonuclear energy capabilities. Alcator A and C projects continued at the FBNML through 1980, when the machines were transferred to the MIT Plasma Fusion Center.

In 1975 the FBNML's Magnet Research and Development Group began the evaluation, design, construction, and testing of large superconducting magnets for magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) generators. This program, funded by the Fossil Fuels/MHD Division of the United States Energy Research and Development Administration, lasted until 1982.

The directors of the FBNML include Benjamin Lax, 1960-1981; Peter A. Wolff, 1981-1988; J. David Litster, 1988-1991; and Robert G. Griffin, 1991-present (as of 1995).