National Institute of Standards and Technology

The National Institute of Standards and Technology was established by Congress "to assist industry in the development of technology ... needed to improve product quality, to modernize manufacturing processes, to ensure product reliability ... and to facilitate rapid commercialization ... of products based on new scientific discoveries."

An agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration, NIST strengthens the U.S. economy and improves the quality of life by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements, and standards. It carries out this mission through a portfolio of four major programs:

• Measurement and Standards Laboratories that provide technical leadership for vital components of the nation's technology infrastructure needed by U.S. industry to continually improve its products and services;
• the Advanced Technology Program , accelerating the development of innovative technologies for broad national benefit through R&D partnerships with the private sector;
• a grassroots Manufacturing Extension Partnership with a network of local centers offering technical and business assistance to smaller manufacturers; and
• a highly visible quality outreach program associated with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award that recognizes business performance excellence and quality achievement by U.S. manufacturers, service companies, educational organizations, and health care providers.

NIST Mission, Vision, Values, and Practices

To strengthen the U.S. economy and improve the quality of life by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements, and standards.

To provide U.S. industry with the world's best technical infrastructure and return the best possible value to the economy and society.

We value:

· Technical, managerial, and administrative excellence in our work.
· Integrity, openness, and respect in our interactions.
· Relevance and focus in our programs.
· Leadership, teamwork, and diversity in our staff.
· Innovation in all our endeavors.
· We expect performance excellence, respect, teamwork, and ethical behavior among our staff.
· We demand the highest standards of quality and integrity in our work and our workplace.
· We encourage staff diversity, leadership, and professional growth.
· We practice open and frequent communication among NIST's employees, customers, and stakeholders.
· We embrace change and innovation.
· We ensure relevance and focus in our programs.

Main Research Areas in NIST Laboratories

- Building and fire research
- Chemical science and technology
- Electronics and electrical engineering
- Information technology
- Manufacturing engineering
- Materials science and engineering
- Physics

A Brief History of NIST

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), formerly the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), was established by Congress in 1901 to support industry, commerce, scientific institutions, and all branches of Government. For nearly 100 years the NIST/NBS laboratories have worked with industry and government to advance measurement science and develop standards.

NBS was created at a time of enormous industrial development in the United States to help support the steel manufacturing, railroads, telephone, and electric power, all industries that were technically sophisticated for their time but lacked adequate standards. In creating NBS, Congress sought to redress a long-standing need to provide standards of measurement for commerce and industry and support the "technology infrastructure" of the 20th Century.

In its first two decades, NBS won international recognition for its outstanding achievements in physical measurements, development of standards, and test methods -- a tradition that has continued ever since. This early work laid the foundation for advances and improvements in many scientific and technical fields of the time, such as standards for lighting and electric power usage; temperature measurement of molten metals; and materials corrosion studies, testing, and metallurgy.

Both World Wars found NBS deeply involved in mobilizing science to solve pressing weapons and war materials problems. After WWII, basic programs in nuclear and atomic physics, electronics, mathematics, computer research, and polymers as well as instrumentation, standards, and measurement research were instituted.

In the 1950s and 1960s, NBS research helped usher in the computer age and was employed in the space race after the stunning launch of Sputnik. The Bureau's technical expertise led to assignments in the social concerns of the Sixties: the environment, health and safety, among others. By the Seventies, energy conservation and fire research had also taken their place at NBS. The mid-to-late 1970s and 1980s found NBS returning with renewed vigor to its original mission focus in support of industry. In particular, increased emphasis was placed on addressing measurement problems in the emerging technologies. Many believe that the Stevenson-Wydler Act implemented, throughout the federal laboratories, the practices that had been developed at NBS over the years: cooperative research and technology transfer activities.

The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 -- in conjunction with 1987 legislation -- augmented the Institute's uniquely orchestrated customer-driven, laboratory-based research program aimed at enhancing the competitiveness of American industry by creating new program elements designed to help industry speed the commercialization of new technology. To reflect the agency's broader mission, the name was changed to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

These efforts, and the organizational changes brought by the NIST Authorization Act for 1989 which created the Department of Commerce's Technology Administration to which NIST was transferred, served as a critical examination of the role of NIST in economic growth. These mission and organizational changes, initiated under the Bush Administration were reaffirmed and strengthened by the Clinton Administration.

In addition to the reviews by Congress, the Administration, and the Department of Commerce, the Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT) of NIST reviews and makes recommendations regarding the general policy, organization, budget, and programs of NIST. The VCAT holds four business meetings each year with NIST management, and summarizes its findings each year in an annual report that is submitted to the Secretary of Commerce and transmitted by the Secretary to Congress.

NIST's four major programs are designed to help U.S. companies achieve their own success, each one providing appropriate assistance or incentives to overcoming obstacles that can undermine industrial competitiveness. The programs are:

• Measurement and Standards Laboratories that provide technical leadership for vital components of the nation's technology infrastructure needed by U.S. industry to continually improve its products and services;

• the Advanced Technology Program, accelerating the development of innovative technologies for broad national benefit through R&D partnerships with the private sector;

• a grassroots Manufacturing Extension Partnership with a nationwide network of local centers offering technical and business assistance to smaller manufacturers; and

• a highly visible quality outreach program associated with the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award that recognizes business performance excellence and quality achievement by U.S. manufacturers, service companies, educational organizations, and health care providers.

Building and Fire Research Laboratory

The Building and Fire Research Laboratory (BFRL) enhances the competitiveness of U.S. industry and public safety through performance prediction and measurement technologies and technical advances that improve the life-cycle quality and cost effectiveness of constructed facilities. BFRL's efforts are closely coordinated with industry, professional and trade organizations, academe, and other agencies of government.

Major goals of the NIST Building and Fire Research Laboratory are to improve the productivity of the U.S. construction industry, which now faces stiff competition from overseas firms, and to reduce the human and economic losses resulting from fires, earthquakes, winds, and other hazards. Through performance prediction and measurement technologies, as well as technical advances, the laboratory works to improve the life-cycle quality of constructed facilities. Its products are used by those who own, design, construct, supply, and provide for the safety or environmental quality of constructed facilities.

The laboratory studies fire science and fire safety engineering; building materials; computer-integrated construction practices; and structural, mechanical, and environmental engineering. Products of the laboratory's research include measurements and test methods, performance criteria, and technical data that are incorporated into building and fire standards and codes. Staff members are involved in more than 100 activities to develop voluntary standards.

The laboratory conducts investigations at the scene of major fires as well as structural failures due to earthquakes, hurricanes, or other causes. The knowledge gained from these investigations guides research and is applied to recommendations for design and construction practices to reduce hazards.

Jack E. Snell, Director Building and Fire Research Laboratory

Building Environment Division

The Building Environment Division reduces the cost of designing and operating buildings and increases the international competitiveness of the U.S. building industry by providing modeling, measurement, and test methods needed to use advanced computation and automation effectively in construction, to improve the quality of the indoor environment, and to improve the performance of building equipment; conducts laboratory, field, and analytical research on building mechanical and control systems; develops data, measurement methods and modeling techniques for the performance of the building envelope, its insulation systems, building air leakage, and the release, movement and absorption of indoor air pollutants, and develops software performance criteria, interface standards, and test methods needed for the Nation's building industry to make effective use of modern computer-aided design hardware and software, and database management systems.

The Building Environment Division began a Green Building Research and Demonstration Program in 1994. As part of that program, grants were given to Montana State University to evaluate a variety of "green technologies" that could be incorporated into the design and construction of a new classroom/laboratory building for the campus. The building is now under design and described in detail on the linked page.

George E. Kelly, Acting Chief Building Environment Division