Established | 1962 |
---|---|
Research type | Physical Sciences |
Budget | $350 million (2012) |
Field of research
|
Accelerator physics Photon science |
Director | Chi-Chang Kao |
Staff | 1,500 |
Address | 2575 Sand Hill Rd. Menlo Park, CA 94025 |
Location | Menlo Park, California, United States |
Campus | 172 ha (426 acres) |
Nickname | SLAC |
Affiliations |
U.S. Department of Energy Stanford University |
Burton Richter Richard E. Taylor Martin L. Perl |
|
Website | www |
SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, originally named Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science and located in Menlo Park, California.
SLAC research centers on a broad program in atomic and solid-state physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine using X-rays from synchrotron radiation and a free-electron laser as well as experimental and theoretical research in elementary particle physics, astroparticle physics, and cosmology.
Founded in 1962 as the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the facility is located on 172 hectares (426 acres) of Stanford University-owned land on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California—just west of the University's main campus. The main accelerator is 3.2 kilometers (2 mi) long—the longest linear accelerator in the world—and has been operational since 1966.
Research at SLAC has produced three Nobel Prizes in Physics:
SLAC's meeting facilities also provided a venue for the Homebrew Computer Club and other pioneers of the home computer revolution of the late 1970s and early 1980s.