Credit: SRRC

Low salaries and high housing costs — this combination is making recruiting synchrotron staff difficult at some facilities in the United States and Britain.

Finding physicists and engineers to work at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) is an uphill battle because the university cannot offer wages that match those of companies in Silicon Valley, says Peter Kuhn, assistant professor at the SSRL. “You try to attract the best scientists and, at the same time, you're competing with private industry.” That competition turns into a losing battle when potential staffers face the inflated value of real estate in Palo Alto.

The competition is further imbalanced when synchrotrons lack facilities. At the SSRL, beamlines are being added faster than offices can be constructed, so many staff are housed in trailers near the ring. Eventually, the SSRL will have the offices it needs, as the university builds the infrastructure needed to support its expanding interests in biology.