Highlights and Milestones
Highlights
| Nobel
Prizes |
50th Anniversary-2012 |
40th
Anniversary-2002 |
Exploring SLAC Science | SSRL
Research | Kavli Institute
Established in 2003 |
Brief History For New Staff|
Milestones
- 1962: Contract execution and start of accelerator
construction
- 1966: Construction completed and research begins
- 1967: 20-GeV electron beam achieved
- 1968: First evidence discovered for quarks
- 1972: SPEAR operations begin
- 1973: Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Project (SSRP)
started
- 1974: Discovery of psi particle
- 1976: Discovery of charm quark and tau lepton
- 1976: Nobel Prize shared by SLAC's Burton Richter
for the J/psi discovery
- 1977: SSRP becomes Stanford Synchrotron Radiation
Laboratory (SSRL)
- 1980: PEP operations begin
- 1982: Wolf Prize awarded to SLAC's Martin Perl for
discovery of the tau lepton
- 1984: SLAC named a National Historic Engineering
Landmark by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
- 1989: SLC operations begin, 50 GeV electron and
positron beams achieved
- 1990: Nobel Prize shared by SLAC's Richard Taylor
for first evidence that nucleons consist of quarks
- 1990: SPEAR becomes a dedicated synchrotron
radiation facility with its own independent injector.
- 1991: SLAC installs first World Wide Web server in
the United States
- 1992: SSRL becomes a Division of SLAC
- 1993: Final Focus Test Beam facility constructed
- 1994: Initiation of the PEP-II project to build the
Asymmetric B Factory
- 1995: Nobel Prize in Physics shared by Martin Perl
for the discovery of the tau lepton.
- 1996: NLCTA project initiated
- 1997: First beam injected into B Factory
- 1998: First B Factory particle collision occurs
- 1999: First Events recorded by B Factory's BaBar
detector
- 2000: Joint NASA-Stanford GLAST project initiated,
Helen Quinn shares Dirac Medal
- 2002: SLAC celebrates 40th anniversary, LCLS project
approved
- 2003: Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and
Cosmology established
- 2004: SPEAR3 comes online
- 2005: Sidney Drell receives Heinz Award for Public Policy
- 2006: Kavli Institute / University of Arizona / Florida
University discover evidence of dark matter
Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to Roger Kornberg for work in RNA polymerase done,
in part, at SSRL
Ground broken and construction begun on Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS)
Phil Bucksbaum becomes first Director of new SLAC/Stanford PULSE Institute for Ultrafast
Energy Science
- 2007: SSRL's Molecular Observatory for Structural Molecular Biology at Beamline 12
dedicated
First use of new nano-scale experimental station at SSRL Beamline 5-2
Persis Drell named Director of SLAC
- 2008: PEP-II and BaBar are shut down after a 9-year run; BaBar collaborators announce discovery
of eta-sub-b particle;
BaBar experiment, along with Belle, cited as contributing to the
2008 Nobel Prize in Physics;
GLAST launched from Cape Canaveral June 11, renamed Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope August 26;
In October, Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) renamed SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
(SLAC) and
Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) becomes Stanford Synchrotron Radiation
Lightsource (SSRL)
- 2009: Science magazine selects TWO SLAC programs for its list of “Breakthrough of the
Year.”
The Fermi Gama-Ray Space Telescope
is chosen as first-runner up, and the LCLS also makes
the list.
LCLS the world’s first hard x-ray laser, achieves first
light and completes its first experiment, with the
Atomic,Molecular & Optical Science Instrument (AMO)
SLAC receives $68.3 million in American
Recovery and Reinvestment Act funds, allowing it to accelerate
acquisition of major research equipment and perform seismic upgrades to infrastructure.
FACET receives approval of Critical Decision 1 from
the Department of Energy
- 2010: LCLS dedicated
X-Rays at SSRL Reveal Chemical Link Between Birds and Dinosaurs (Archaeopterix)
SUNCAT Center for Sustainable Energy
through Catalysis is established at SLAC
- 2011:
LCLS awarded US Secretary of Energy's "Award of Excellence"
DOE approves a key milestone in the SLAC-led development of a camera for the Large Synoptic
Survey Telescope (LSST)
FGST confirms the 2009 discovery of an excess
of positrons in cosmic rays
SLAC breaks ground on new Research Support Building (RSB)
See 2011 SLAC Press Release Archive
- 2012: SLAC celebrates its 50th
anniversary
FGST detects the
highest-energy light ever associated with an eruption on the Sun
SLAC goes online on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Flikr
LSST
receives CD-1 approval from the DOE
Persis Drell steps down and Chi-Chang
Kao is named SLAC's 5th Director
See 2012 SLAC Press Release Archive
- 2013: Professor and Deputy Director Emeritus Sidney Drell receives
the
National Medal of Science
SLAC
Research Support Building (RSB) opens
FGST sees record gamma-ray burst
of 94 GeV
Construction of
Stanford Research Computing Facility (SRCF) at SLAC completed
See 2013 SLAC Press Release Archive
- 2014: See 2014 SLAC Press Release Archive
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