Cryo-EM image processing workshop at SSRL
Endless possibilities

Life at SLAC

Every day, SLAC people can be seen collaborating across our beautiful campus. The Main Quad is busy during lunch with colleagues catching up, and our buildings offer spaces to think up new ideas. Explore SLAC through our articles or take our virtual tour. To meet our scientists and learn about the exciting science happening at the lab, register for a public tour or sign up for our events, such as public lectures and community outreach activities.

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Arrival and inspection of the L3 lens of the LSST Camera

The lasting impact of working as an engineer at SLAC on big science projects gives me a sense of contributing to our collective knowledge of the universe.”

Travis Lange Staff engineer
Videos

Behind the scenes at SLAC

Science that’s changing the world from the heart of Silicon Valley and the people who are making it happen.
Video
Science that’s changing the world from the heart of Silicon Valley, and the people who are making it happen. (Farrin Abbott/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
About SLAC video
Video
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. (01:30min) (Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

The Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) instrument mimics the extreme pressure of the Earth's core and temperatures as hot as the Sun’s surface. We observe the transformation of matter with an atom’s-eye view – uncovering answers to fundamental physics questions.”

Arianna Gleason Staff scientist
Staff scientist Arianna Gleason discusses science being done in the Matter in Extreme Conditions (MEC) hutch.

Our communities

A meeting of SLAC’s Committee for Outreach, Recruiting & Engagement of Ethnic Minorities (CORE) Employee Resource Group.
A monthly meeting of SLAC’s Committee for Outreach, Recruiting & Engagement of Ethnic Minorities (CORE) Employee Resource Group. (Dawn Harmer/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
SLAC volunteers assembled personal care packs for the 2019 Cardinal at Work Cares Giving Essentials Drive.
SLAC volunteers assembled personal care packs for the 2019 Cardinal at Work Cares Giving Essentials Drive, which distributed 3,200 packs and more than 1,000 jackets and coats. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
From left, Marc Davidson and Cameron Kim judge the final round of the 2020 Regional Department of Energy Science Bowl.
From left, Marc Davidson and Cameron Kim judge the final round of the 2020 Regional Department of Energy Science Bowl, held in Panofsky Auditorium. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
High school students participate in SAGE Camp, a girls engineering camp.
SLAC staff participate in the SAGE summer camp poster session. SAGE aims to engage high school girls to enter into a career in STEM. (Jim Gensheimer/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Our campus

SLAC employees seen sitting at tables around the Main Quad.
 Employees back on SLAC’s beautiful campus during the spring of 2021, catching up at the Main Quad. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Evening view of the cryoplant.
Evening view of the cryoplant that will keep the Linac Coherent Light Source’s superconducting linear accelerator at 2 degrees Celsius above absolute zero (minus 456 degrees Fahrenheit), about as cold as outer space. (Eric Fauve/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
SLAC staff taking a break to order coffee at Verve on site.
SLAC staff taking a break to order coffee at Verve on site. (Linda McCulloch/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Our work

Preparations of instruments for beam and experiments at LCLS
XPP Instrument Area Manager Daniel Stefanescu prepares LCLS instruments for beam and experiments. (Linda McCulloch/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Margaret Ghaly puts a pin in one of the two countries she calls home on the SLAC Celebrates Diversity Around the World Map on display at the 2019 SLAC Holiday Party.
Margaret Ghaly puts a pin in one of the two countries she calls home on the SLAC Celebrates Diversity Around the World Map on display at the 2019 SLAC Holiday Party. (Jacqueline Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Installation into SLAC’s undulator hall housing these magnets.
Installation into SLAC’s undulator hall housing these magnets.  (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Researchers gathered at SLAC's SSRL and LCLS Users Meeting for plenary talks, workshops, poster sessions and award presentations, all involving the lab’s light sources.
Researchers gathered at SLAC's SSRL and LCLS Users Meeting for plenary talks, workshops, poster sessions and award presentations, all involving the lab’s light sources. (Jacqueline Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

More than work

Employees with the Business Services Division enjoy a catered breakfast in the main quad.
Employees with the Business Services Division enjoy a catered breakfast in the main quad. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Pride parade at SLAC
The SLAC LGBTQ+ Employee Resource Group organized the first ever Pride March at the lab on June 29, 2022. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Our annual staff barbecue at the lab’s Arrillaga Recreation Building sports field draws crowds with games and prizes.
Our annual staff barbecue at the lab’s Arrillaga Recreation Building sports field draws crowds with games and prizes. (Linda McCulloch/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
SLAC employees enjoy the third Comms Coffee Social get-together outside the SUSB patio on April 28, 2022.
SLAC employees enjoy the third Comms Coffee Social get-together outside the SUSB patio on April 28, 2022. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)

Learning enrichments

Art Meets Science: A Different Physics with San Mateo County Poet Laureate Lisa Rosenberg talks about her poetry with professor Roger Blandford
Art Meets Science: A Different Physics with San Mateo County Poet Laureate Lisa Rosenberg, who talks about her poetry with Professor Roger Blandford at Kavli Auditorium at SLAC. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Staff scientist Johanna Nelson Weker gives a talk about pushing the battery revolution.
Staff scientist Johanna Nelson Weker gives a talk about pushing the battery revolution during a SLAC on Tap event at The Old Pro in Palo Alto. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Participants discuss their scientific posters during the 2019 Bay Area Battery Summit.
 Participants discuss their scientific posters during the 2019 Bay Area Battery Summit. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
SLAC Science

Explore our frontier research

Ultra-bright X-ray laser pulses can be used to strip electrons away from atoms.
Dig deeper

Our people in SLAC news

News Feature

A day in the life of an accelerator engineer

Shweta Saraf and her team work to ensure the LCLS beamline runs without interruption. 

June 18, 2025  ·  5 min read
A woman stands next to a large blue server rack filled with electronic control units, wiring, and monitoring equipment. She is smiling at the camera while using a stylus to interact with a touchscreen interface on one of the devices.
News Feature

Q&A: Jun-Sik Lee explains how new SSRL capabilities will probe the mysteries of superconductors

The upgrades to SSRL’s resonant soft X-ray scattering beam line could reveal the hidden physics in high-temperature superconductors.

June 9, 2025  ·  4 min read
A gold beam strikes a sample inside a copper colored apparatus. A white beam emerges.
News Feature

Symposium celebrates Claudio Pellegrini, pioneer of SLAC’s X-ray laser

Leading researchers met at SLAC on Pellegrini’s 90th birthday to honor his ongoing scientific legacy and to explore the future of X-ray free-electron laser...

May 23, 2025  ·  16 min read
An image of Claudio Pellegrini beside a schematic showing magnets in orange and an electron beam in green creating a blue beam of X-rays.
News Feature

A day in the life of an accelerator engineer

Shweta Saraf and her team work to ensure the LCLS beamline runs without interruption. 

June 18, 2025  ·  5 min read
A woman stands next to a large blue server rack filled with electronic control units, wiring, and monitoring equipment. She is smiling at the camera while using a stylus to interact with a touchscreen interface on one of the devices.
News Feature

Q&A: Jun-Sik Lee explains how new SSRL capabilities will probe the mysteries of superconductors

The upgrades to SSRL’s resonant soft X-ray scattering beam line could reveal the hidden physics in high-temperature superconductors.

June 9, 2025  ·  4 min read
A gold beam strikes a sample inside a copper colored apparatus. A white beam emerges.
News Feature

Symposium celebrates Claudio Pellegrini, pioneer of SLAC’s X-ray laser

Leading researchers met at SLAC on Pellegrini’s 90th birthday to honor his ongoing scientific legacy and to explore the future of X-ray free-electron laser...

May 23, 2025  ·  16 min read
An image of Claudio Pellegrini beside a schematic showing magnets in orange and an electron beam in green creating a blue beam of X-rays.
News Feature

What will it take to bring fusion energy to the US power grid?

In this Q&A, Arianna Gleason discusses the technologies needed to make commercialized fusion energy a reality and how SLAC is advancing this energy frontier. 

May 7, 2025  ·  7 min read
Headshot of Arianna Gleason with graphic representation of a laser shot
News Brief

Researchers use SLAC’s synchrotron to monitor how one protein’s evolution could affect transmission of avian flu to and between humans

The new findings highlight the need for ongoing monitoring of H5N1’s evolution in nature. 

April 24, 2025  ·  4 min read
Chickens in a grassy field
News Brief
VIA Stanford

SLAC's Lance Dixon elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

The theorist is one of seven Stanford faculty members elected by the Academy this year, recognizing their exceptional contributions in their fields and professions.

April 23, 2025
Lance Dixon pointing at mathematical formula on a chalkboard