SSRL turns 50 | SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory

Celebrating SSRL’s 50th anniversary.

On April 20, 2023 we celebrated 50 years of transformative science at SSRL. This unique event acknowledged many individuals who have made SSRL such a vital and impactful facility through partnerships among SSRL users and staff that fuel our success.

SSRL website

SSRL 50th celebration at Stanford. — Celebrating SSRL's 50th Anniversary at Stanford University's Cantor Arts Center. *(Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)*

Lead Scientist Johanna Nelson Weker gives a talk about energy materials science at SSRL's 50th anniversary symposium held at Kavli Auditorium on April 20, 2023. *(Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)*

Symposium presentations

Delve into the presentations (PDF's) delivered during our momentous SSRL Turns 50 Symposium event.

Artie Bienenstock

Asmeret Asefaw Berhe, Director Office of Science

Paul McIntyre, SSRL Associate Lab Director

Seb Doniach

Stephen Streiffer

ZX Shen

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)*

SSRL’s 50th Anniversary group photo — Celebration of SSRL’s 50th Anniversary, group photo held on main quad on April 20, 2023. *(Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)*

SLAC Recent History (1973-2023 Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource) - How did Synchrotrons become global X-ray powerhouses? *(Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)*

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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). *(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)