Panofsky Fellowship Overview

The Fellowship celebrates W.K.H. Panofsky’s breadth of activities and is awarded without regard to a candidate's particular specialty within our programs. The candidate's research plan should encompass one or more areas within the general scope of the science program at SLAC:

• Accelerator Science & Advanced Accelerator Research

• Applied Energy Research

• Biosciences

• Chemical Science

• Computer Science

• Elementary Particle Physics

• High Energy Density Matter

• Material And Condensed Matter Science

• Particle Astrophysics & Cosmology

• X-Ray Science (Ultrafast Science & Advanced X-Ray Instrumentation)

Fellowship appointments are awarded by the SLAC Director following a lab-wide selection process.

Candidates should be early in their careers but have demonstrated significant experience at the postdoctoral level and be widely recognized as having potential for exceptional scholarship, breadth, innovation, and leadership. 

The appointment carries a five-year term at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, with salary and benefits commensurate with the candidate's experience and generous research support, including funding for a postdoctoral researcher. Since the Fellowship's inception in 1989, Panofsky Fellows have played important roles in their fields as members of the Faculty and Staff at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory or other prominent research institutions.

SLAC offers several types of scientific research positions and career progressions, all in support of the mission and values of the laboratory. 

Individual research groups offer postdoctoral positions, which are typically filled by individuals who have recently completed their Ph.D. Directorates appoint scientists to entry and mid-career level positions as staff scientists supporting their research programs and facility user communities. The upper levels of the staff scientist series transition to lab-level appointments and confer a high degree of independence and expectation of internationally-demonstrated leadership.  

SLAC, through Stanford University, appoints faculty at all levels as a means of attracting and retaining world-class scientific leadership for its facilities and existing and future research programs. The Panofsky Fellows are expected to have demonstrated experience at the postdoctoral level with a clear potential to play an important role in their field at a level consistent with junior faculty or early career staff at the world’s leading research institutions and universities. 

As such, the Panofsky Fellows are positioned as a stepping stone between postdoctoral positions and early career ongoing appointments. This can be seen by reviewing past recipients, Panofsky Fellows are well-positioned to compete for regular ongoing appointments at SLAC or other major research institutions as their next career step. 

Consistent with this goal, our expectation is that Panofsky Fellows exhibit a potential for innovation and growth, and an ability to create new opportunities as their career progresses. To be maximally successful, Fellows usually benefit from taking full advantage of the unique opportunity to conduct their research at SLAC, through research that takes advantage of our world-class facilities and programs or strategically creates new directions building on this foundation, thereby demonstrating alignment with SLAC’s long-term mission and values.