Sanford Underground Research Facility Employee Directory
Research ServicesSouth Dakota, United States51-200 Employees
SURF is a research facility located in Lead, South Dakota, operated by the South Dakota Science and Technology Authority. It provides deep underground laboratory space to shield sensitive experiments from cosmic radiation, enabling work on fundamental questions in physics such as the origin of matter, dark matter, and neutrinos. The center also supports research in geology, biology, and engineering within the same underground environment. The site occupies the historic Homestake gold mine, a venue with a long physics legacy linked to underground solar neutrino studies. It employs a mid-sized staff and serves a broad research community through its interdisciplinary programs. In January 2026 SURF launched the John Bahcall Colloquium, a monthly lecture series intended to foster scientific exchange across its disciplines.