View of SLAC campus looking east
SLAC History

The idea for a two-mile linear accelerator at Stanford University was conceived in 1956, proposed in 1957, and authorized by Congress in 1961. Initially called "Project M," the venture was renamed "The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center" (SLAC) in August of 1960, and again renamed " SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory" in October 2008. 

Histories of SLAC

 The initial contract between Stanford University and the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission was signed on April 30, 1962: construction began the following July and was completed February 10, 1966. SLAC's official dedication occurred on September 9, 1967.

Publications listed are in alphabetical order by author's last name.

Note: Some links on this page open pdf files, which require the free Acrobat Reader.

Allen, Peter C. Deeper and Deeper into the Atom. Stanford Historical Society, Sandstone and Tile Volume 4, no. 2 (Winter 1980) p. 2-8.

Ash, W. W. and H.A. Weidner. Stanford Linear Accelerator Center: A National Historic Engineering Landmark, Designated 1984, Stanford, California. (Sections include Engineering the Subatomic Machines, The Two-Mile Accelerator, Magnetic Spectrometers, Colliding-Beam Machines, and SLAC - A Brief History)

Bevan, A. J. et al. The Physics of the B Factories. Ed. A.J. Bevan, B. Golob, Th. Mannel, S. Prell, and B.D. Yabsley, submitted to EPJC, SLAC-PUB-15968, KEK Preprint 2014-3

Bienenstock, Arthur. Initiatives and Think Tanks. (Stanford University: Interactions, Fall Issue, 2005, page 8)

Bostedt, Christoph, et al. Linac Coherent Light Source: The first five years. Christoph Bostedt, Sebastien Boutet, David M. Fritz, Zhirong Huang, Hae Ja Lee, Henrik T. Lemke, Aymeric Robert, William F. Schlotter, Joshua J. Turner, and Garth J. Williams.   Rev. Mod. Phys. 88, 015007. Published 9 March 2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/RevModPhys.88.015007

Butcher, Bernard. "The Making of Project M," Stanford Magazine (May/June 1997).

Cover of report by Doniach, Hodgson, Lindau, Pianetta and Winick (1997)
(SLAC AHRO) Cover of Doniach, Sebastian and K. Hodgson, I. Lindau, P. Pianetta, H. Winick. Early Work with Synchrotron Radiation at Stanford. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (1997) 4, 380-395

Cottrell, Les. Bringing the Internet to China. Symmetry: Dimensions of Particle Physics, Volume 2 Issue 9 November 2005.

Deken, Jean Marie. Gallery: Early Linacs. Symmetry: Dimensions of Particle Physics, Volume 2 Issue 6 August 2005

Deken, Jean Marie. The SLAC Blue Book: A Brief History, March 2007. (The Blue Book is the common name of the 1968 volume, The Stanford Two Mile Accelerator)

Deken, Jean Marie, Senior Editor. Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Celebrating 40 Years: A Photo History. Pages 1-59  ;  60-123 ;  plus Errata sheet. SLAC, 2002 (SLAC-R-605).

Doniach, Sebastian and K. Hodgson, I. Lindau, P. Pianetta, H. Winick. Early Work with Synchrotron Radiation at Stanford. Journal of Synchrotron Radiation (1997) 4, 380-395. Note: This article is from a Special Issue of Journal of Synchrotron Radiation that marked the 50th anniversary of the first observation of synchrotron radiation light.

Drell, Sidney D. SLAC and the Adventure of Science. SLAC Beam Line, November 1982

Dupen, Douglas W. The Story of Stanford's 2-Mile Long Accelerator. SLAC-R-062, May 1966. 118pp.

An Informal History of SLAC (cover)
(SLAC AHRO) Cover illustration of "An Informal History of SLAC" brochure. William Kirk, SLAC, 1967-1968

Etchemendy, John. Illuminating the Possible. (Remarks made at the October 20, 2006 groundbreaking of the LCLS). Stanford Historical Society, Sandstone and Tile Volume 31, no 1 (Winter 2006-2007) p. 14-16.

Ferro, Lenora and Susan Southworth. Sidney D. Drell: Into the Heart of Matter, Passionately. Hoover Institution Press, 2021

Forman, Paul. Atom Smashers: Fifty Years Preview of An Exhibit on the History of High Energy Accelerators. Curator of Modern Physics, The National Museum of History and Technology, Smithsonian Institution. (IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, Vol NS-24, No. 3, June 1977, p. 1896-1899)

Ginzton, Edward L. An Informal History of SLAC Part One: Early Accelerator Work at Stanford. SLAC Beam Line Special Issue Number 2, April 1983

Ginzton, Edward L. Times to remember: the life of Edward L. Ginzton. Blackberry Creek Press, 1995.

Hallonsten, Olof. Small science on big machines: Politics and practices of synchrotron radiation laboratories. Lund: Lund Studies in Research Policy 1, Research Policy Institute, Lund, 2009. (Esp. Chapter 4: Synchrotron radiation at Stanford -- from parasitic to symbiotic and back. 109-154)

The Parasites: Synchrotron Radiation at SLAC, 1972-1992. Olof Hallonsten, Historical Studies in the Natural Sciences, V 45 N 2, 2015

Thomas Heinze & Olof Hallonsten (2017), The reinvention of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 1992–2012, History and Technology, 33:3, 300-332, DOI: 10.1080/07341512.2018.1449711

Hoddeson, Lillian H. (Editor) The Rise of the Standard model: Particle physics in the 1960s and 1970s. Proceedings, Conference, Stanfod USA, June 24-27, 1992.

Hodgson, Keith. Photon Science at SLAC--What, Why and Where To? SLAC Today, April 4, 2008

Jenkins, T.M. and McCall, R.C.. History of SLAC health physics. 1995. In Patterson, H.W. (ed.), Thomas, R.H. (ed.): The history of accelerator radiological protection, p. 185-206.

Kirk, Cassius L. and Roxanne L. Nilan. Stanford's Wallace Sterling: Portrait of a Presidency 1949-1968.    Stanford Historical Society, 2023. (Chapter 8 details the founding of SLAC.)

[Kirk, William] An Informal History of SLAC. SLAC, [1967-1968] (26-page black and white illustrated booklet)

Dust jacket for SLAC "Blue Book"
(SLAC AHRO) Dust jacket design for Neal, R. B., Editor. The Stanford Two-Mile Accelerator. New York, W. A. Benjamin, 1968.

LCLS early history: Groundbreaking Science with the World’s Brightest X-Rays . Also, William H. Goldstein, LLNL Associate Director for Physical and Life Sciences, Commentary: World’s Most Intense X-Ray Laser Focuses on Livermore Science . Science & Technology Review, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, January/February 2011

Loew, Gregory. Forty Years of SLAC Power (1964-2005).

Loew, Gregory. "We have accelerated electrons" The history of our beginnings at Stanford . Presentation at Celebration of Sixty Years of Accelerated Electrons at Stanford and in the UK. Wednesday, 23 May 2007

Moulton, Robert. Physics, Power and Politics--Fear and Loathing on the Electron Trail: An Eyewitness Account of the Campaign for Congressional Approval of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, 1959-1961Stanford Historical Society, Sandstone and Tile Volume 25, no 1 (Winter 2001) p. 3-13.

Neal, Richard B. Editor. The Stanford Two Mile Accelerator. New York: W. A. Benjamin, 1968. 1169pp. (PDF)

Nilan, Roxanne. "Listening to Physics: The Use of Oral History in Documenting Modern Science", Sandstone & Tile, 14:3 (Summer 1990,) pp. 8-12.

William D. Nix (2019), A Century of Materials Science and Engineering at Stanford: From Steels to Semiconductors to Nano- and Bio-Materials. Stanford Historical Society and the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University. (Pages 86-91 cover history of SSRP/SSRL.)

Cover of Panofsky memoir
(SLAC AHRO) Front cover of Panofsky on Physics, Politics and Peace: Pief Remembers. Springer, 2007.

Panofsky, W. K. H. An Informal History of SLAC Part Two: The Evolution of SLAC and Its Program. SLAC Beam Line Special Issue Number 3, May 1983.

Panofsky, W. K. H. Big Physics and Small Physics at Stanford. Stanford Historical Society, Sandstone and Tile Volume 14, no. 3 (Summer 1990) p. 1-10.

Panofsky, Wolfgang K. H. Panofsky on Physics, Politics and Peace: Pief Remembers. New York: Springer, 2007.

Paris, Elizabeth. Lords of the ring: The fight to build the first U.S. electron -positron collider. Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences. Vol. 31, No. 2 (2001), pp. 355-380 (26 pages) University of California Press.

Paris, Elizabeth. "Ringing in the New Physics: The Politics and Technology of Electron Colliders in the United States, 1956 - 1972,"  Ph.D. dissertation, University of Pittsburgh, 1999.

Rees, John. Colliding Beam Storage Rings: A Brief History. SLAC Beam Line Special Issue Number 9, March 1986.

Richter, Burton. An Informal History of SLAC Part Three: Colliding Beams at Stanford. SLAC Beam Line Special Issue Number 7, November 1984.

Riordan, Michael. The Hunting of the Quark: A True Story of Modern Physics. New York: Simon and Shuster, 1987. 399pp.

 

Cover of Traweek's Beamtimes and Lifetimes (1988)
(SLAC AHRO) Cover of Traweek, Sharon. Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High-Energy Physics.Harvard University Press, 1988

Stevens, Hallam. Fundamental physics and its justifications, 1945-1993 Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences. Sept. 2003, Vol. 34, No. 1: 151-197. Copyright University of California Press.

Traweek, Sharon. Beamtimes and Lifetimes: The World of High-Energy Physics.Harvard University Press, 1988 [Study of SLAC and KEK]

Zuoyue Wang. "The Politics of Big Science in the Cold War: PSAC [President's Science Advisory Committee] and the Funding of SLAC [Stanford Linear Accelerator Center]." Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences 25, pt. 2 (1995): 329-356. Copyright University of California Press.