CHESS is a hard X-ray synchrotron radiation national facility located at Cornell University and funded by the National Science Foundation. It is open to all scientists by peer-reviewed proposal and serves 5001000 visitors each year. The CHESS scientific and technical staff develops forefront research tools and X-ray instrumentation and methods and supports 12 experimental stations delivering high intensity X-ray beams produced at 5.3 GeV and 250 mA. The facility consists of a mix of dedicated and flexible experimental stations that are easily configured for general X-ray diffraction (wide- and small-angle), spectroscopy, imaging applications, etc. Dedicated stations support high-pressure powder X-ray diffraction, pulsed-laser deposition for layer-by-layer growth of surfaces, and three dedicated stations for protein crystallography. Specialized resource groups at the laboratory include: an X-ray detector group; MacCHESS, an NIH-supported research resource for protein crystallography; the G-line division, which primarily organizes graduate students and Cornell faculty members around three X-ray stations; a high-pressure diamond-anvil cell support laboratory; and a monocapillary drawing facility for making microbeam X-ray optics. Research is also ongoing to upgrade CHESS to a first-ever 5 GeV, 100 mA Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) hard X-ray source. This source will provide ultra-high spectral-brightness and <100 fs short-pulse capability at levels well in advance of those possible with existing storage rings. It will produce diffraction-limited X-rays beams of up to 10 keV energy and be capable of providing 1 nm round beams. Prototyping for this facility is under way now to demonstrate critical DC photoelectron injector and superconducting linac technologies needed for the full-scale ERL. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.