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.

Apply for jobs Become an intern

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.

Learning enrichments

Staff members at SLAC having lunch on the main quad outside the Science and User Support Building (SUSB), with clear blue skies overhead.
SLAC staff enjoy our annual holiday lunch on the Main Quad, with the Science and User Support Building (SUSB) in the background. (Olivier Bonin/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
In the foreground, a poster of Julia Gonski; in the background, she speaks to an audience at the Dutch Goose in Menlo Park..
SLAC 's Julia Gonski talks about “The Fundamental Universe, Looking for Zebras, and the World’s Largest Demolition Derby” at SLAC on Tap, a public outreach event at the Dutch Goose in Menlo Park. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Family taking a selfie with the LSST Camera in the background.
On LSST Family Day, employees involved in the LSST Camera project brought their families to see the huge camera before it was shipped to the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. (Jacqueline Ramseyer Orrell/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
Three people having a discussion in the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) Control Room.
Operating the LCLS X-ray laser is incredibly complex. SLAC researchers are leading a multidisciplinary study aimed at making control room operations more effective by improving operator training, integrating AI tools and learning how experienced operators do things. (Olivier Bonin/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

Feature

SLAC’s 2026 Panofsky Fellow Ann Wang hunts for dark matter

Her work will advance a next-generation experiment in the hope of detecting this mysterious ingredient of the universe.

September 24, 2025  ·  3 min read
Portrait of Ann Wang
News Brief
VIA Stanford

One surprising fact about the human brain

SLAC Deputy Director for Science and Technology Alberto Salleo's lab at Stanford is creating artificial synapses to replicate the brain’s efficiency and learning capacity...

August 18, 2025
Alberto Salleo and graduate student Scott Keene in the lab
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.
Feature

SLAC’s 2026 Panofsky Fellow Ann Wang hunts for dark matter

Her work will advance a next-generation experiment in the hope of detecting this mysterious ingredient of the universe.

September 24, 2025  ·  3 min read
Portrait of Ann Wang
News Brief
VIA Stanford

One surprising fact about the human brain

SLAC Deputy Director for Science and Technology Alberto Salleo's lab at Stanford is creating artificial synapses to replicate the brain’s efficiency and learning capacity...

August 18, 2025
Alberto Salleo and graduate student Scott Keene in the lab
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.
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.
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.
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