http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_Linear_Accelerator

The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) is a United States Department of Energy National Laboratory operated by Stanford University under the programmatic direction of the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science. The SLAC research program centers on experimental and theoretical research in elementary particle physics using electron beams and a broad program of research in atomic and solid-state physics, chemistry, biology, and medicine using synchrotron radiation.[1] The 3.2-kilometer (2.0-mile) long underground accelerator is the longest linear accelerator in the world, and is claimed to be "the world's straightest object."[2] SLAC's meeting facilities also provided a venue for the homebrew computer club and other pioneers of the 1980s home computer revolution, and later SLAC hosted the first webpage in the U.S. The above-ground klystron gallery atop the beamline is the longest building in the United States.

Founded in 1962, the facility is located on 1.72 square-kilometers (426 acres) of Stanford University-owned land on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, California—just west from the University's main campus. The main accelerator, a 3.2-kilometer-long RF linear accelerator, which can accelerate electrons and positrons up to 50 GeV, has been operational since 1966. It is buried 10 metres (30 feet) below ground and passes underneath Interstate 280. As of 2005, SLAC employs over 1,000 people, some 150 of which are physicists with doctorate degrees, and serves over 3,000 visiting researchers yearly, operating particle accelerators for high-energy physics and the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) for synchrotron light radiation research.[1]
SLAC 3-kilometer (1.9-mile) long Klystron Gallery above the beam line Accelerator
SLAC 3-kilometer (1.9-mile) long Klystron Gallery above the beam line Accelerator

Research at SLAC has produced three Nobel Prizes in Physics:

    * 1976 - The Charm Quark — see J/? particle[3]
    * 1990 - Quark structure inside Protons and Neutrons[4]
    * 1995 - The tau lepton[5]

Also, SSRL was "indispensable" in the research leading to the 2006 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[6]

In the early-to-mid 90s, the Stanford Linear Collider or SLC, investigated the properties of the Z boson using the Stanford Large Detector.


Virtual Visitors Center: http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/vvc/