Highlights and Milestones

Highlights

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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
• 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.
• 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: SLAC reorganized, 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)
• 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
       
• 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

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