About
As one of 17 U.S. Department of Energy national labs, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory pushes the frontiers of human knowledge and drives discoveries that benefit humankind. We invent the tools that make those discoveries possible and share them with scientists all over the world.
SLAC, Stanford & Department of Energy
Stanford University operates SLAC for the Department of Energy’s Office of Science – a partnership that is key to our successful work at the forefront of science.
SLAC's History
Originally founded for breakthrough research in particle physics, SLAC has evolved into a multipurpose lab whose mission is to explore the world at all scales, from the tiniest fundamental particles to the largest structures in the universe.
SLAC Culture
SLAC's mission, vision and values tell our story – what we do, and why. These statements are guiding principles that define our purpose, frame our lab’s goals and challenge us to see beyond the science we do today to the discoveries and impact we can have tomorrow.
U.S. Department of Energy's Ten-Year Plans for the Office of Science National Laboratories
The Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for the effective stewardship of 17 national laboratories, of those ten are stewarded by the Office of Science and focus on discovery science. The DOE national laboratories were created as a means to an end: victory in World War II and national security in the face of the new atomic age. Since then, they have consistently responded to national priorities: first for national defense, but also in the space race and more recently in the search for new sources of energy, new energy-efficient materials, new methods for countering terrorism domestically and abroad, and addressing important critical national needs.
Today, the national laboratories comprise the most comprehensive research system of their kind in the world. In supporting DOE’s mission and strategic goals, the SC national laboratories perform a pivotal function in the nation’s research and development (R&D) efforts: increasingly the most interesting and important scientific questions fall at the intersections of scientific disciplines—chemistry, biology, physics, astronomy, mathematics— rather than within individual disciplines. The SC national laboratories are specifically designed and structured to pursue research at these intersections. Their history is replete with examples of multi-and inter-disciplinary research with far-reaching consequences. This kind of synergy, and the ability to transfer technology from one scientific field to another on a grand scale, is a unique feature of SC national laboratories that is not well-suited to university or private sector research facilities because of its scope, infrastructure needs or multidisciplinary nature.
This document presents strategic plans for ten national laboratories for the period FY 2024-2034.
