NIST Gaithersburg, MD

NIST Boulder, CO

JILA Boulder, CO

Physics Laboratory Brochure
U.S. Department of Commerce, Technology Administration
National Institute of Standards and Technology

Introduction

Our programs span the full range from those that respond to immediate needs of industry to those focused on the longer-term, high risk research that anticipates future industrial challenges. We believe that the quality of our service stems in large measure from the breadth, vigor, and excellence of our research programs; our contributions are credible only to the extent that they are based on the best scientific and technical judgment available. Thus we address the fundamental triad of standards, measurements, and data in an environment of vigorous and competitive research focused on gaining knowledge for potential application.

Science and technology, once considered separate and sequential, are now becoming increasingly merged. To tighten the relation between the performers of fundamental research and the industrial developers of advanced technologies, scientists in the Physics Laboratory work with industry and the other laboratories of NIST to develop new technologies in areas such as communications, defense, energy, environment, space, health, microelectronics, and transportation. The excitement in the Laboratory is that it is often the very same scientists who are world leaders in the longer-term fundamental research - measuring the properties of nanoscale devices, developing novel measurement methods for determining the structure and function of biological systems, and exploring the mysteries of quantum physics - who are also the most eager to see their efforts amplified by commercializing their ideas and discoveries.

Cooperative research and development agreements, industrial research associates, workshops, publications, and comprehensive tabulations of reference data are all powerful mechanisms for transferring our measurement capability to the private sector.

To ensure that industry derives maximum benefit from our resources, we focus our programs of research and services in four strategic areas:

• Electronic and magnetic devices - where we develop innovative measurement methods for device characterization and electronic information and communication, including magnetic microscopy, direct write lithography, atomic frequency standards, synchronization techniques, and information networking

• Optical technology - where we provide the national basis for optical radiation measurement and develop optical measurement systems for industrial and environmental applications including length measurement, remote sensing, data transmission, and atom optics

• Radiation applications and control - where we support the innovative, effective, and safe use of radiation by developing standards, measurement methods, and data critical for health care technology, environmental technology, industrial radiation processing, nondestructive evaluation, and the nuclear power industry

• Fundamental physical quantities - where we strive to improve the definitions and physical realizations of base and derived SI units and pursue opportunities for new determinations of fundamental constants

Katharine B. Gebbie, Director

Physics Laboratory

Divisions
Electron & Optical Physics	Atomic Physics	Optical Technology	Ionizing Radiation	Time and Frequency	Quantum Physics
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