SLAC’s campus at sunset looking southeast. The Stanford Dish and Interstate 280 in the distance.

Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

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SLAC’s research yard in the foreground, with the LINAC stretching 2 miles to the west, and SLAC’s campus on the right.

Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

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Aerial view of SLAC’s  campus with the LINAC in the foreground leading into the campus. The interstate 280 passes over the LINAC. Stanford campus and Hoover tower can be seen in the distance.

Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

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Aerial view of SSRL (Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource) with SLAC’s campus in the background.

Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

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View of SLAC’s Quad with 600+ employees gathering for a group photo with the Science and User Support Building (left) and Arillaga Science Center (right) in the background

Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

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Bold People
Visionary Science
Real Impact

We explore how the universe works at the biggest, smallest and fastest scales and invent powerful tools used by scientists around the globe. Our research helps solve real-world problems and advances the interests of the nation.

Our story Our people

Visionary Science

Explore our frontier research

X-ray & ultrafast science

Revealing nature’s fastest processes with X-rays, lasers and electrons

Physics of the universe

Studying the particles and forces that knit the cosmos together
 

Advanced accelerators

Building smaller, faster, more powerful accelerators for all
 

Science of life

Understanding the machinery of life at its most basic level
 

New technologies

Inventing new tools for science and society
 

Energy sciences

Finding clean, sustainable solutions for the world’s energy challenges

WHERE RESEARCH HAPPENS

Facilities & centers

At our large-scale facilities and specialized centers, scientists take advantage of powerful tools and unique expertise and collaborate with each other across a wide range of disciplines. Working together is what makes science tick.

Scientific facilities Joint institutes & centers

MEET OUR TEAMS

SLAC people

To achieve our ambitious goals and keep SLAC a great place to work, the lab needs a creative, diverse and united workforce – people with a wide variety of experiences, ideas, skills and backgrounds.

LATEST UPDATES

SLAC news center

News feature

Created by an electronic tug-of-war between the material's atomic layers, this ‘beautiful’ herringbone-like pattern could give rise to unique features that scientists are just starting to explore.

An illustration of a dramatic, herringbone-like pattern in the atomic lattice of a newly created quantum material. Against a black background, calcium atoms are seen as light blue spheres, cobalt atoms in dark blue and oxygen atoms in red. Lines connecting the oxygen atoms represent the atomic lattice.
News Feature

SLAC researcher Sadasivan Shankar talks about a new environmental effort starting at the lab – building a roadmap that will help researchers improve the...

Sadasivan Shankar
News Feature

The synthetic galaxy catalog will help test Roman's capabilities and foster collaboration with the Rubin project. 

A field of bright spots on a black background.
News Feature

This year’s regional champions, Saratoga High School and Joaquin Miller Middle School, are accompanied by the first-ever Good Sport and Volunteer Award winners.

JoAnne Hewett presents medals to Saratoga High School students.
News Feature

SLAC researcher Sadasivan Shankar talks about a new environmental effort starting at the lab – building a roadmap that will help researchers improve the...

Sadasivan Shankar
News Feature

The synthetic galaxy catalog will help test Roman's capabilities and foster collaboration with the Rubin project. 

A field of bright spots on a black background.
News Feature

This year’s regional champions, Saratoga High School and Joaquin Miller Middle School, are accompanied by the first-ever Good Sport and Volunteer Award winners.

JoAnne Hewett presents medals to Saratoga High School students.
News Feature

Together with two long-time collaborators, he is recognized for work that helps us understand the strong nuclear force.

A man standing in front of a chalkboard.
News Feature

By tinkering and troubleshooting, Aalayah Spencer helps turn researchers’ ideas into state-of-the-art science experiments.

Aalayah Spencer inside the Linac Coherent Light Source at the Department of Energy’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. Spencer is a science and engineering associate in Experiment Control Systems at LCLS.
News Feature
Scientists already knew the atoms in  perovskites,  a promising class of solar cell materials, react favorably to light. Now they can see precisely how...
MeV-UED
SLAC EVENTS

What’s happening

Upcoming Event

Presented by Axel Levy.

public lecture poster image
Apr 06
Upcoming Event
This event is free, open to all, and family-friendly hosted by Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC) at Stanford University, Science &...
Dwarf Galaxy 3.
Apr 15

SLAC has a talented and dedicated staff with an extremely bright future, one that will help solve some of the greatest scientific challenges facing the world today.”

Chi-Chang Kao Former Lab Director Chi-Chang Kao, Former SLAC Lab Director.
About SLAC video still frame
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SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is a Department of Energy national lab run by Stanford in the heart of Silicon Valley. We invent scientific tools to explore the universe at its biggest, its smallest and its fastest. (Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
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SLAC Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) accelerator tunnel.
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