The University signed a new lease with the Department of Energy (DOE) on Aug. 4, extending a contract originally signed in 1962. The signatory parties agreed that the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) National Accelerator Laboratory will continue to function on University land for another 33 years.

Leslie Hume, chair of Stanford’s Board of Trustees, said that she believed the extended contract between the University and the DOE would continue to foster the cooperation that has brought on pioneering breakthroughs. Hume and Paul Golan, the DOE site manager at SLAC, signed the lease.

At a time when the results of the first user experiments at the Linac Coherent Light Source, operated by the University for the DOE, are being published, and proposals are being made for multi-purpose experimental research facilities at SLAC, officials say that the lease was signed at a significant moment.

“SLAC is a tremendous resource for Stanford, and over the next 33 years I anticipate that the research facilitated by SLAC will have a transformative impact on our society,” Hume said in an interview with the Stanford Report.

Representatives from both the University and the Department of Energy expressed favorable opinions toward the extended contract.

— Buyan Pan