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SSRL turns 50

Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource | 50 years

Join us in celebrating SSRL’s 50th anniversary in this one-day symposium on April 20, 2023.

We look forward to welcoming you to SSRL on April 20 to celebrate 50 years of transformative science, and to look ahead to an exciting future full of new discoveries.  This is a unique opportunity to acknowledge many individuals who have made SSRL such a vital and impactful facility, and to renew the partnerships among SSRL users and staff that fuel our success.

RSVP & agenda SSRL website

Upcoming Event
Join us for a full day of talks and panel discussions looking at the past, present and future of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource...
Panofsky auditorium with SSRL 50th graphic
Apr 20

Join us in celebrating this impressive achievement and SSRL’s continued commitment to cutting-edge research.

Paul McIntyre SSRL Associate Lab Director
Paul McIntyre
(Jacqueline Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
1973-1982

The founding years

SPEAR storage ring x-ray on the left and rearranged shielding blocks from the Pilot Project at SSRL.
Image of the first x-ray beam extracted from the SPEAR storage ring hitting a fluorescent screen (left) and of the original pilot project in the makeshift alcove consisting of rearranged shielding blocks (right). (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

The Stanford Positron Electron Asymmetric Ring (SPEAR) was created in 1972 as a high energy physics colliding beam facility to discover new particles.  It did not take long for Stanford University researchers to harness the intense x-ray beams generated by the circulating electrons to probe materials in new ways.  In collaboration with SLAC scientists, this resulted in a Pilot Project which in 1973 extracted the first x-ray beams from SPEAR. The facility led to the discovery of the J/psi particle and tau lepton, earning researchers the 1976 & 1995 Nobel Prize in Physics.

A user facility

SSRL as a National User Facility

Starting in 1977 with new funding from the National Science Foundation, SSRL (then known as the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project, SSRP) moved from being an experimental project to a national user facility. SSRL would go on to become one of the pioneering synchrotron facilities in the world, known for outstanding user support and important contributions to science and instrumentation. SSRL’s funding moved to DOE in 1982.

SSRL staff photo from 1977 (left) and the founding directors, William E. Spicer, Deputy Director and Sebastian Doniach, Director (right).
SSRL staff photo from 1977 (left) and the founding directors, William E. Spicer, Deputy Director and Sebastian Doniach, Director (right).  (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
1982-2003

SSRL Evolves

View of a section of the upgraded SPEAR3 synchrotron
A view inside the SSRL accelerator tunnel and a section of the upgraded SPEAR3 synchrotron in 2005. (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

In 1990, SSRL built its own injector booster ring, which allowed the facility to become independent of the SLAC LINAC.  SPEAR became fully dedicated as the SSRL synchrotron source in 1991 with a first long run in 1993.  

In 2003, SPEAR went through a major rebuild and became the low-emittance SPEAR3 storage ring. This renovation also included significant upgrades to several of the beam lines. 

A diagram of the first SSRL facility in 1974
The first SSRL facility consisted of a single beam line with five simultaneously operating experimental stations going all the way from vacuum ultraviolet to hard x-rays. Participating research teams included: UV (China Lake Laboratory), EXAFS (U. of Washington and Bell Laboratories), UV+soft x-ray (Xerox Corporation), biological x-ray diffraction (Cal Tech.), and XPS (Stanford University). (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
2003 to today

Global reach

Continued beam line and accelerator upgrades are enabling SSRL to further its significant contributions to scientific discovery, development and training of the future workforce. SSRL operates about nine months of the year with over 30 different experimental stations available for users from universities, private industry, government labs and foreign institutions in numerous disciplines, including chemistry, biology, medicine, environmental science, materials science, engineering, and applied physics. Over 1,500 scientists from institutions around the world visit SSRL to contact their research experiments every year.  

SSRL fact sheet (pdf)

Team at the RFX instrument in Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) at SLAC.
Researchers stand next to the RFX instrument inside of SSRL. (Jacqueline Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
This illustration depicts the basic components of a synchrotron light source, such as SSRL at SLAC.
This illustration depicts the basic components of a synchrotron light source, such as SSRL at SLAC. Electrons are produced with the electron gun and accelerated in the booster ring. As the electrons curve around the storage ring with the help of bending magnets, they emit X-ray light that is then focused into beams aimed at samples scientists wish to study in the experimental stations. (Greg Stewart/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
present and past

SSRL directors

Paul McIntyre

Portrait of Paul McIntyre, associate lab director, Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) Directorate

Piero Pianetta

Piero Pianetta

Kelly Gaffney

Kelly Gaffney

Chi-Chang Kao

Former Director of SLAC, Chi-Chang Kao

Joachim Stöhr

SSRL director 2005 – 2009

Keith Hodgson

SSRL director 1998 – 2005

Artie Bienenstock

Artie Bienenstock

Sebastian Doniach

Sebastian Doniach
Synchrotron

Video gallery

video still frame of synchrotron explainer
Video
Watch this video for a simple explanation of what a synchrotron is and why there are 60 around the world today. (Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
video still frame about X-ray crystallography at SSRL
Video
Jeney Wierman, a staff scientist at SLAC, explains how SSRL tools are contributing to COVID-19 research. (Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
video still frame from lecture about fossil colors
Video
This lecture presented by Nick Edwards explores the new area of scientific study, including discoveries made with advanced X-ray imaging techniques at SLAC and SSRL.
Public Lecture | Improving Batteries from the Atoms Up presented by Yijin Liu
Video
Dig deeper

Synchrotron news

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 Brief
Blaine Mooers, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, has won this year’s  Farrel W. Lytle...
Blaine Mooers
News Feature

The Stanford Board of Trustees held its first meeting of the 2022-23 academic year Oct. 17-18. Trustees toured the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and...

Aerial photo of SLAC research yard
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 Brief
Blaine Mooers, associate professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, has won this year’s  Farrel W. Lytle...
Blaine Mooers
News Feature

The Stanford Board of Trustees held its first meeting of the 2022-23 academic year Oct. 17-18. Trustees toured the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and...

Aerial photo of SLAC research yard
News Feature

Encapsulating precious-metal catalysts in a web-like alumina framework could reduce the amount needed in catalytic converters – and our dependency on these scarce metals.

A web of red material encapsulates blue polyhedrons.
News Brief

The protein could play a key role in soil carbon cycling and soil decomposition.

News Brief

Fan’s X-ray crystallography work at SLAC’s synchrotron moves us closer to a more protective coronavirus vaccine and a better understanding of how vital materials...

Fan wins this year's Klein award from SSRL.