SHS 36^th Annual Meeting and Reception

Thursday, May 10, 2012

Fifty Years on the Science Frontier: The Scientific and Technology Evolution of SLAC 

Burton Richter
Director Emeritus, SLAC
Paul Pigott Professor in the Physical Sciences, Emeritus
Nobel Laureate (Physics, 1976)

In 1962, the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (now SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory) began with the Congressional authorization of its 2-mile-long linear accelerator, the first $100 million science project. The science mission was the examination of the interaction of the high-energy electron with matter, a study that had brought Robert Hofstadter his 1961 Nobel Prize for his work at the much smaller linear accelerator at the Hanson lab on the main Stanford Campus. The first beam was delivered in 1966, a remarkably short construction time for such a large project. The era of what is called High Energy Physics had begun at Stanford.

A combination of advances in accelerators, detectors and scientific breadth has kept SLAC at the frontier of science ever since, though the areas of research have changed greatly, now including chemistry, materials, biology, cosmology and many other sciences - as well as the original high-energy physics. Four Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work at SLAC, and today it is generally regarded as the world's leading laboratory for photon science because of it X-ray laser. Professor Richter will discuss both the science and technology evolution that made all this possible.

4:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Panofsky Auditorium, SLAC, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025-7015 (map or directions)
Free parking available; photo ID required.