CHESS provides our users state-of-the-art synchrotron radiation facilities for research in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Environmental and Materials Sciences. A special NIH Research Resource, called MacCHESS, supports special facilities for protein crystallographic studies.

CHESS serves a wide spectrum of experimental groups from Universities, National Laboratories and Industry. Each year, 500-600 scientists, graduate and undergraduate students visit CHESS to collect data. In addition, a significant effort of the staff is aimed at developing synchrotron radiation experimental facilities and methods that utilize the high intensity photon flux provided by the Cornell Electron Storage Ring (CESR).