Cornell Laboratory for Accelerator-based ScienceS and Education (CLASSE)

CLASSE studies our world and universe using x-rays and high energy electron and positron beams. We develop organic solar cells and study the folding of long DNA strands at CLASSE's national x-ray user facility (CHESS), study the Higgs boson with the Large Hadron Collider, and glimpse the early universe with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. CLASSE also advances the frontiers of beam science, and develops the technology needed to produce and accelerate ultra-bright, high power beams for research, medicine and industry. We study the behavior of very compact beams using the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR), develop high power electron sources, and advance the superconducting technology that accelerates particles to near light speed. This research will increase the scientific reach of future accelerators and open new doors for industry. Much of our work is directed at an Energy Recovery Linac, a special kind of accelerator invented at Cornell that would produce x-ray beams 1000 times brighter than those at today's synchrotron sources. Finally — and very importantly — CLASSE educates future scientific leaders. As a university lab, students, both undergraduate and graduate, are at the heart of everything we do.