CARB was founded in 1984 as a novel partnership among the University of Maryland, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Montgomery County, Maryland government. This partnership was formalized in 1986 through a Memorandum of Understanding between NIST and the University of Maryland that affirmed each partner’s commitment to share scientific expertise and resources, to train the future scientific leaders and to collaborate for the advancement of biotechnology. Over the next two decades, CARB scientists developed experimental and theoretical approaches to emerging research problems in modern structural biology, physical biochemistry and computational biology. CARB has received international recognition as a world leader in contemporary structural biology research and training.