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 SLAC Vision, Mission and Core Values Statements — DRAFT

 

Note: The final SLAC Vision, Mission and Core Values Statements are now online.
What follows is a draft version.

 

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Vision Statement

We seek to understand the structure and dynamics of matter from the smallest to the largest scales of the universe. We strive to benefit society through this understanding.

 

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Mission Statement

We seek to achieve and maintain world leadership as a National Laboratory by delivering breakthrough science in a vibrant, exciting, and well-managed creative environment.

The laboratory's forefront accelerator and photon science facilities will address the most challenging scientific questions of our time, exploring the ultimate structure and properties of matter, energy, space and time at the extremes of current and future possibility, including the smallest and largest scales, the fastest processes, and the highest energy.

The laboratory will achieve this by offering world-class management and mission support functions and by continually innovating, developing, and operating facilities.

The major programs SLAC currently undertakes to achieve its mission are:

  • Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL)—providing research opportunities for the broad scientific user community to investigate the electronic and atomic structure of matter.

  • Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) and LCLS Ultrafast Science Instruments (LUSI)—producing and providing record-breaking bright and brief pulses of X-rays to illuminate the structure of and processes in matter on ultra-small length and ultrafast time scales.

  • BaBar Detector and B Factory—finding explanations for the disappearance of antimatter in the early universe and understanding charge parity violation through some of the rarest processes in nature.

  • Advanced Accelerator Research—developing novel concepts and experimental techniques for creating and controlling particle beams and for reaching new frontiers in accelerators for high-energy physics and synchrotron radiation.

  • Photon Ultrafast Laser Science and Engineering (PULSE)—studying ultrafast structural and electronic dynamics phenomena in atomic physics, condensed matter physics, chemistry, and biology in support of the LCLS research program.

  • X-Ray Laboratory for Advanced Materials (XLAM)—studying the key challenges in condensed matter physics and materials science using SSRL and LCLS.

  • Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology (KIPAC)—studying new fronts and challenges in particle astrophysics and cosmology to reveal the innermost workings of the physical world.

  • Gamma Ray Large Area Telescope (GLAST)—studying the earliest evolution of the universe by observing the entire gamma-ray sky with a satellite-mounted observatory.

  • International Linear Collider (ILC)—developing the scientific and technical basis for studying the energy frontier of electrons and photons at a proposed future international facility.

  • ATLAS at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)—pursuing understanding of the smallest length scales and highest energy scales by collaborating in the ATLAS detector experiment at the LHC in Geneva, Switzerland.

 

Stanford Linear Accelerator Center Core Values

  • One Lab: SLAC employees are unified under the laboratory Vision and Mission. We will take actions based on what is best for the laboratory as a whole.

  • Excellence: We seek to achieve excellence in all endeavors we choose to undertake. SLAC will actively search for the best practices and highest standards of performance, nationally and internationally, against which to measure itself. We represent both the U.S. Government and Stanford University. At all levels of SLAC, we will conduct ourselves every day as the proud personal representatives of these eminent organizations.

  • Safety: At SLAC, the health and safety of people comes first and takes precedence over the attainment of other laboratory objectives. We are dedicated to providing the leadership at all levels that by example emphasizes, reinforces and assures the integration of safe and secure practices throughout the institution. The safe way to do things is the best and most effective way in the long run. Each of our actions must reflect this commitment.

  • Respectful Workplace: We view people as the laboratory's most important asset and commit to providing a work environment in which each individual can feel safe, secure and valued. People at SLAC will treat each other with civility, dignity, and tolerance.

  • Communication: We will create open and effective communication channels throughout the organization. Each of us is responsible for speaking up; each of us is responsible for listening as well.

  • Positive Problem Solving: We will strive to address difficult challenges or adverse conditions with a forward-looking, success-oriented approach.

  • Integrity: We will commit to uncompromising personal and professional integrity, with every individual conducting himself or herself in the highest ethical manner in all activities and relationships.

  • Accountability: We will communicate goals, objectives and tasks clearly through line management so every employee knows what is expected of him/her and achievements can be measured.

 

—SLAC Today, November 14, 2007