National Institute of Standards and Technology

Agency name	National Institute of Standards and Technology
Seal	NIST logo.svg
Seal width	140px
Headquarters	Gaithersburg, Maryland
Budget	US$820 million (2009)US$862 million (est. 2010)US$922 million (est. 2011)

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), is a measurement standards laboratory which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce. The institute's official mission is to:

NIST had an operating budget for fiscal year 2007 (October 1, 2006-September 30, 2007) of about $843.3 million. NIST's 2009 budget was $992 million, but it also received $610 million as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. NIST employs about 2,900 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support and administrative personnel. About 1,800 NIST associates (guest researchers and engineers from American companies and foreign nations) complement the staff. In addition, NIST partners with 1,400 manufacturing specialists and staff at nearly 350 affiliated centers around the country.

Organization

NIST is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and operates a facility in Boulder, Colorado. NIST's activities are organized into laboratory programs, and extramural programs. Effective October 1, 2010, NIST was realigned by reducing the number of NIST laboratory units from ten to six. NIST Laboratories include:

Engineering Laboratory (EL)

Information Technology Laboratory (ITL)

Material Measurement Laboratory (MML)

Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML)

Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST)

NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR)

Extramural programs include:

Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (HMEP), a nationwide network of centers to assist small manufacturers;

Technology Innovation Program (TIP), a grant program where NIST and industry partners cost share the early-stage development of innovative but high-risk technologies;

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program, the nation's highest award for performance and business excellence.

NIST's Boulder laboratories are best known for NIST-F1, housing an atomic clock. NIST-F1 serves as the source of the nation's official time. From its measurement of the natural resonance frequency of caesium—which is used to define the second—NIST broadcasts time signals via longwave radio station WWVB at Fort Collins, Colorado, and shortwave radio stations WWV and WWVH, located at Fort Collins, Colorado and Kekaha, Hawaii, respectively.

NIST also operates a neutron science user facility: the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR). The NCNR provides scientists access to a variety of neutron scattering instruments, which are used in many fields of research (materials science, fuel cells, biotechnology, etc.).

The SURF III Synchrotron Ultraviolet Radiation Facility is a source of synchrotron radiation, in continuous operation since 1961. SURF III now serves as the US national standard for source-based radiometry throughout the generalized optical spectrum. All NASA-borne extreme-ultraviolet observation instruments have been calibrated at SURF since the 1970s, and SURF is used for measurement and characterization of systems for extreme ultraviolet lithography.

The Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) performs research in nanotechnology, both through internal research efforts and by running a user-accessible cleanroom nanomanufacturing facility. This 'NanoFab' is equipped with tools for lithographic patterning and imaging (e.g. electron microscopes and atomic force microscopes).

Measurements and standards

As part of its mission, NIST supplies industry, academia, government, and other users with over 1,300 Standard Reference Materials (SRMs). These artifacts are certified as having specific characteristics or component content, used as calibration standards for measuring equipment and procedures, quality control benchmarks for industrial processes, and experimental control samples.

Committees

NIST has seven standing committees:

Technical Guidelines Development Committee (TGDC)

Advisory Committee on Earthquake Hazards Reduction (ACEHR)

National Construction Safety Team Advisory Committee (NCST Advisory Committee)

Information Security and Privacy Advisory Board (ISPAB)

Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT)

Baldrige National Quality Program Board of Overseers (BNQP Board of Overseers)

Manufacturing Extension Partnership National Advisory Board (MEPNAB)

Homeland security

NIST is currently developing government-wide identification card standards for federal employees and contractors to prevent unauthorized persons from gaining access to government buildings and computer systems.

World Trade Center Collapse Investigation

In 2002 the National Construction Safety Team Act mandated NIST to conduct an investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings 1 and 2 and the 47-story 7 World Trade Center. The investigation, directed by lead investigator Shyam Sunder, covered three aspects, including a technical building and fire safety investigation to study the factors contributing to the probable cause of the collapses of the WTC Towers (WTC 1 and 2) and WTC 7. NIST also established a research and development program to provide the technical basis for improved building and fire codes, standards, and practices, and a dissemination and technical assistance program to engage leaders of the construction and building community in implementing proposed changes to practices, standards, and codes. NIST also is providing practical guidance and tools to better prepare facility owners, contractors, architects, engineers, emergency responders, and regulatory authorities to respond to future disasters. The investigation portion of the response plan was completed with the release of the final report on 7 World Trade Center on November 20, 2008. The final report on the WTC Towers – including 30 recommendations for improving building and occupant safety – was released on October 26, 2005.

Election technology

NIST works in conjunction with the Technical Guidelines Development Committee of the Election Assistance Commission to develop the Voluntary Voting System Guidelines for voting machines and other election technology.

SAMATE

SAMATE (Software Assurance Metrics And Tool Evaluation) is a NIST project focused on improving software assurance by developing methods to enable software tool evaluations, measuring the effectiveness of tools and techniques, and identifying gaps in tools and methods.

People

Three researchers at NIST have been awarded Nobel Prizes for their work in physics: William D. Phillips in 1997, Eric A. Cornell in 2001, and John L. Hall in 2005, which is the largest number for any US government laboratory. Other notable people who have worked at NIST include:

Milton Abramowitz

James S. Albus

Ferdinand Brickwedde

Lyman James Briggs

Edgar Buckingham

John W. Cahn

William Coblentz

Ronald Colle

Philip J. Davis

Hugh L. Dryden

Jack Edmonds

Ugo Fano

Charlotte Froese Fischer

Tim Foecke

Douglas Hartree

Magnus Hestenes

Cornelius Lanczos

Wilfrid Mann

William Meggers

James G. Nell

Ward Plummer

Jacob Rabinow

Richard Saykally

Charlotte Moore Sitterly

Irene Stegun

Bill Stone

Directors

Since 1989, the director of NIST has been a Schedule-C Presidential appointee and is confirmed by the United States Senate, and since that year the average tenure of NIST directors has fallen from 11 years to 2 years in duration. Fourteen persons have officially held the position (in addition to three acting directors who served temporarily). They are:

Samuel W. Stratton, 1901-1922

George K. Burgess, 1923-1932

Lyman J. Briggs, 1932-1945

Edward U. Condon, 1945-1951

Allen V. Astin, 1951-1969

Lewis M. Branscomb, 1969-1972

Richard W. Roberts, 1973-1975

Ernest Ambler, 1975-1989

John W. Lyons, 1990-1993

Arati Prabhakar, 1993-1997

Raymond G. Kammer, 1997-2000

Karen Brown (acting director), 2000-2001

Arden L. Bement Jr., 2001-2004

Hratch Semerjian (acting director), 2004-2005

William Jeffrey, 2005-2007

James Turner (acting director), 2007-2008

Patrick D. Gallagher, 2008- present

NBS Director Allen V. Astin is the father of actor John Astin and the grandfather of actor Sean Astin.

See also

Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD)

International System of Units, see International Bureau of Weights and Measures

ISO 17025

Journal of Research of the National Institute of Standards and Technology

Metrology

National Software Reference Library

References

External links

Main NIST website

The Official U.S. Time

NIST Standard Reference Materials

NIST Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST)

NIST Scientific and Technical Data

NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions

Category:Standards organizations Category:Gaithersburg, Maryland Category:United States Department of Commerce agencies