Staff Honors and Awards

2004 Student Awards

Ms. Colleen Bryan received the 2004 Best Student Poster Award on March 27th, 2004 for "Non-lethal Monitoring of Trace Elements in Bottlenose Dolphins, Tursiops Truncatus" at the Southeast and Mid-Atlantic Mammal Symposium.

Mr. Rusty Day received the 2004 Conference of Southern Graduate Schools (CSGS) Award for Outstanding Master's Degree Thesis in Life Science for his thesis titled "Mercury in Loggerhead Sea Turtles, Caretta caretta - Developing Monitoring Strategies, Investigating Factors Affecting Contamination, and Assessing Health Impacts. The research on which the thesis was based was performed in the NIST laboratories at the Hollings Marine Laboratory in collaboration with NIST researchers Steven Christopher and Paul Becker.

2001 LabAutomation Poster Award

Dr. Timothy J. Johnson received the 2001 LabAutomation Poster Award for his poster entitled surface charge analysis of laser-ablated and imprinted polymer microchannels.

Dr. Emanuel A. Waddell received the 2001 LabAutomation Poster Award for his poster entitled one-step laser ablation and surface modification of polymer substrates for the fabrication of microfluid devices.

2001 R&D-100 Award

Dr. Stephen E. Long and Dr. W. Robert Kelly received the 2001 R&D-100 Award for their contributions in the process for the determination of mercury in fossil fuels by ID-CV-ICP-MS

2001 ISPAC Award

Dr. Stephen Wise has been selected by the International Society for Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds (ISPAC) as the recipient of the 2001 ISPAC award for outstanding contributions in the field of polycyclic aromatic compounds. The award will be presented at the 18th International Symposium on Polycyclic Aromatic Compounds, September 9-13, 2001 at the University of Cincinnati.

2001 Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Analytical Chemistry Award

Dr. Willie E. May, Chief of the Analytical Chemistry Division, has been selected to receive the 2001 Distinguished Service in the Advancement of Analytical Chemistry Award given by the Analytical Division of the American Chemical Society.

2000 ASTM Award of Appreciation

Dr. John R. Sieber was honored by the American Society for Testing and Materials at their June 2000 Committee Meeting in Seattle. John was presented with an Award of Appreciation for his leadership in the certification of SRM 1848 Lubricant Additive Package and for his past contributions to ASTM Committee D02 on Petroleum Products. SRM 1848 is the first Standard Reference Material for formulated crankcase lubricants and dispersant-inhibitor additive packages. It is certified for ten elements and total base number, a measure of the acid neutralization ability of a lubricant. Nearly all SRM projects are collaborative efforts and SRM 1848 was no exception. The photograph at the right depicts members of the Analytical Chemistry Division who contributed to the certification project: R. Vocke, J. Mann, J. Sieber, E. Mackey, W. Kelly, and A. Marlow (absent: L. Wood). Other participants included statistician S. Leigh and SRMP staff B. MacDonald, D. Friend, C. Fales, and M. Cronise.

2000 W.J. Youden Award in Interlaboratory Testing

The American Statistical Association has awarded the 2000 W.J. Youden Award in Interlaboratory Testing to �Micronutrients Measurement Quality Assurance Program: Helping Participants Use Interlaboratory Comparison Exercise Results to Improve Their Long-term Measurement Performance,� a paper co-authored by David L. Duewer, Katherine E. Sharpless, and Jeanice Brown Thomas of NIST�s Analytical Chemistry Division (ACD), Margaret C. Kline and the late Kenneth T. Gary of NIST�s Biotechnology Division, and Anne Sowell of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The paper was published in Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 71, May 1, 1999, pp. 1870-1878. The W. J. Youden Award in Interlaboratory Testing was established by the American Statistical Association in 1985 to recognize publications that make outstanding contributions to the design and/or analysis of interlaboratory tests, or describe ingenious approaches to the planning and evaluation of data from such tests . Dr. William John (Jack) Youden (1900-1971) was internationally recognized as an expert in the communication of statistical techniques to those concerned with experimentation. He joined the National Bureau of Standards in 1948 and helped establish NBS’s Statistical Engineering Division as a world leader in measurement analysis, interpretation, and communication. The 2000 Award paper presents novel nomenclature and graphical data analysis tools designed to improve communication between interlaboratory test providers and participating analysts. The tools described in the paper were developed to support ACD�s Micronutrients Measurement Quality Assurance Program. More than 50 clinical and nutritional laboratories involved in the measurement of vitamins A, C, and E and carotenoids currently participate in this international program. Previous W.J. Youden Awardees from NIST include: John Mandel (1988 and 1996), Theodore W. Lashof (1988), Keith R. Eberhardt (1991), Charles P. Reeve (1991), Clifford H. Spiegelman (1991), Andrew L. Rukhin (1998), and Mark G. Vangel (1998).

2000 Outstanding Scientists of the 20th Century

Dr. Alexander John Fatiadi was included in the "2000 Outstanding Scientists of the 20th Century" in honor of an outstanding contribution in the field of Organic and Bio-Organic Chemistry, signed and sealed at the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge, England, and for receiving a 20th Century Achievement Award from the Board of Directors of the American Biographical Institute sitting in the USA, as most admirable and whose career achievements and social contributions have been selected for permanent documentation in 500 leaders of influence designed for biographical reference and inspiration for present-day citizens of the 20th Century as well as future generations.

1999 ASTM Lundell-Bright Award

Mr. Charles M. Beck was the 1999 recipient of the ASTM Lundell-Bright Award. The award, established in 1964 by committee E03 on Chemical Analysis of metals, is given for outstanding work to a member of Committee E01 on Analytical Chemistry for metals, Ores, and related materials.

1998 Fellow of the American Nuclear Society

Dr. Robert R. Greenberg was elected the Fellow of the American Nuclear Society for his development of high accuracy/high precision nuclear analytical methods and quality assurance procedures, and the application of these methods to the certification of standard reference materials.

1998 Association for Laboratory Automation Achievement Award

Dr. Gary W. Kramer received the 1998 Association for Laboratory Automation Achievement Award for his scientific contributions and continuing efforts in the field of laboratory automation.

1998 Federal Laboratory Consortium Excellence in Technology Transfer Award

Dr. W. Robert Kelly received the 1998 Federal Laboratory Consortium Excellence in Technology Transfer Award for his development and transfer of the aerospace industry of an analytical technique for advanced casting processes.

1998 ASTM Award of Appreciation by Committee E-10 on Nuclear Technology

Dr. George Lamaze received the 1998 ASTM Award of Appreciation by Committee E-10 on Nuclear Technology for his many years of outstanding and dedicated service to Committee E-10.

Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers

Dr. Pamela Chu has been awarded the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers. She was cited for "developing chemical measurement methods and standards needed by American industry for measuring air pollutants from automobile exhaust gases and chemical process plants." This award recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers at the beginning of their careers and is the highest honor bestowed by the US Government on young researchers.

Secretary Daley Presents Analytical Chemistry Division's Gas Metrology Team with Hammer Award

As part of the ceremony for dedication of the new Advanced Chemical Sciences Laboratory facility, Secretary William Daley presented the Analytical Chemistry Division's Gas Metrology Team with a National Partnership for Reinventing Government Hammer Award. The team was cited for its efforts in partnering with 10 specialty gas companies to create more than 5,600 NTRM (NISTTraceable Reference Material) cylinder gas standards which were then used by the partnering companies to produce ~400,000 NIST-traceable gas standards for end-users representing more than $100,000,000 in business revenues. An NTRM is a commercially produced reference material with a well-defined traceability linkage to existing NIST standards for chemical measurements. This traceability linkage is established via criteria and protocols defined by NIST and tailored to meet the needs of the metrological community to be served.

The NTRM concept was implemented initially in the gas standards area to allow NIST to respond to increasing demands for high quality reference materials needed to implement the "Emissions Trading" provisions of the Clean Air Act of 1990 (while facing the reality of constant human and financial resources at NIST). According to Stephen Miller, Technical Director, Scott Specialty Gases, "the Gas NTRM program has served as an excellent vehicle for production of the high quality standards --of known pedigree --required by both industry and the regulatory community in the implementation of Title IV (SO2 emissions trading) of the 1990 Clean Air Act." Within this program, the time required at NIST for development and delivery of certified gas standards needed by Specialty Gas Companies for quality assuring their products was reduced from 1.5 years to 5 months.

Tangible benefits of the Gas Metrology Team's efforts include:
For End-users of Cylinder Gas Standards:

Greatly enhances probability that NIST-traceable reference materials will be available when needed (through commercial multiprovider system)
Facilitates availability of a wider variety of NIST-traceable reference materials in terms of compound combinations, concentration levels, etc.
Decreases time needed for development and delivery of NIST gas standard (NTRM requires 3 to 5 months versus the 1.5 to 2 years required for development of new SRM)
Provides more affordable materials of needed quality and traceability
Defines and documents the quality and traceability to national standards of commercially produced reference materials

For Commercial Reference Materials Providers:

Provides mechanism to produce commercial reference materials with defined traceability to NIST as needed by their customers
Increased business creates new jobs

For NIST:

Enables provision of needed gas standards of quality and defined traceability that is acceptable to user, commercial provider, and regulatory communities
Enables increased leverage and more appropriate allocation of NIST resources
Demonstrates feasibility of an alternative approach that is also needed for delivery of NIST-traceable standards in other areas
Provides NIST with valuable knowledge of new standards needs through increased collaboration with private standards producers

For Other Government Agencies:

Ensures availability of reference materials with defined NIST-traceability needed for implementation of various agency programs

Gas Metrology Team Members:

Franklin R. Guenther
William D. Dorko
William J. Thorn III
George C. Rhoderick
Walter R. Miller
Pamela M. Chu
Gerald D. Mitchell
Patricia C. Johnson
Terry L. Green
Terri S. Hamilton

CSTL Technical Achievement Award

Project Coordinators: Michele Schantz and Stephen Wise and Contributing Analysts: Wayne Brubaker, Steven Christopher, John Kucklick, Stephen Long, Elizabeth Mackey, Curtis Phinney, Barbara Porter, Dianne Poster, Michael Rearick, Katherine Sharpless, and Silke Tutschku of the Analytical Chemistry Division received the 2003 CSTL Technical Achievement Award for their contributions to the development of SRM 1946 Lake Superior Fish Tissue. This SRM will serve as a critical quality assurance tool in contaminant measurement programs related to the marine environment on local (i.e., Chesapeake Bay fish monitoring), regional, (i.e., the Great Lakes) and continental scales (i.e., fish pollution monitoring within 200 miles of U.S. shores for healthy consumable fish trade).

Dr. Robert Greenberg and Dr. Dick Lindstrom of the Analytical Chemistry Division, and Dr. David Sim ons of the Surface and Microanalysis Science Division received the 2000 CSTL Technical Achievement Award for their work in the development and critical evaluation of the INAA method for determining Arsenic Implanted on Silicon Chips. The Semiconductor industry routinely uses Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMs) for such measurements. SIMs is an excellent tool for doing spatial location of As, but requires a matrix-matched standard for calibration. Data from an industry round-robin (including Motorola, Lucent, IBM and others) showed that there was a very wide discrepancy among measurements at the ~100 ng/cm2 level. Hence, an SRM for As in Si was among the top priorities on the semiconductor road map. Certification of such an SRM required a method with a total uncertainty of no greater than 1%. The method developed and critically evaluated was demonstrated to provide a total uncertainty of 0.38%. The work was published in the Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry (Volume 245, pages 57-63, 2000) and SRM 2134 (Arsenic Implant in Silicon Depth Profile Standard) was issued on May 26, 2000.

Excellence in Chemical Metrology Award

Dr. Michele Schantz was the 2003 recipient of the Excellence in Chemical Metrology based on her contributions regarding the development of analytical methods, and SRMs to support the advancement of trace organic analytical metrology. Her contributions span all aspects of trace organic analytical methodology including extraction, fractionation/isolation, chromatographic separation, and detection of trace organic species in complex mixtures.

Dr. John C. Travis was the 1999 recipient of the Excellence in Chemical Metrology Award for his long-term contributions to the analytical applications of optical spectroscopy. Dr. Travis has made many important contributions during his 32 years at NIST. He has been the author or co-author of more than ninety scientific publications, over ninety presentations, and currently serves as the technical champion for five optical filter Standard Reference Materials. He has made many important scientific contributions to optical spectroscopy, measurement science, and SRM development He has developed and maintained a number of optical spectrometers which are considered benchmark instruments for the world and he has maintained one of the most productive SRM programs within CSTL.

Dr. Lorna T. Sniegoski was the 1997 recipient of the Excellence in Chemical Metrology Award for her long-term and outstanding contributions to the development of high accuracy methods for important clinical analytes and certification of clinical standard reference materials.

Dr. Richard M. Lindstrom was the 1997 recipient of the Excellence in Chemical Metrology Award for his long-term and outstanding efforts in the field of nuclear analytical chemistry. Including the demonstration of the potential accuracy of instrumental neutron activation analysis and development of prompt gamma activation analysis as an accurate analytical technique for use in standard reference material certification.

Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award

Mr. George Rhoderick received the 2004 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for his outstanding efforts in the development of a series of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) in air standards. Both industry and regulatory agencies require NIST-traceable VOC standards in their efforts to monitor and/or reduce emissions of ozone precursors into the atmosphere. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) considers the 50 critical VOC standards certified within the past five years as "completely essential for our efforts to reduce automobile emissions and ozone precursors."

Drs. Gregory C. Turk and Marc L. Salit received the 2003 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award for their development, critical evaluation, and application of an innovative, chemometric-based approach to correct for low frequency noise, or drift that has been demonstrated to improve the precision by up to 20-fold.

Dr. David L. Duewer received a 2002 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for his successful and innovative use of visualization techniques to summarize and communicate complex statistical information from interlaboratory DNA profiling, micronutrient measurement studies, multi-vendor NIST Traceable Reference Material (NTRM) qualification data, and multi-national intercomparison results that are understandable to both decision makers and wider scientific audiences.

Dr. Kenneth W. Pratt, Jr. received a 2000 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for his outstanding fundamental and applied research in the areas of pH and electrolytic conductivity.

Dr. Pamela Chu received a 1999 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for her outstanding leadership and technical achievement in the development of a Quantitative Infrared Database (QID) to support remote sensing of hazardous air pollutant molecules. Recognizing the potential of remote sensing technology, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has recently prepared a formal protocol (Method TO-16) for FT infrared open-path sensing. This new protocol will provide industry with a tool for regulatory compliance that is both cost-effective and less invasive than current practices. The success of this program is highly dependent on the availability of high-quality reference spectral data that Dr. Chu is providing.

Dr. W. Robert Kelly received a 1998 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for his development and application of isotope dilution mass spectrometry methods to chemical measurements and standards problems of industrial relevance.

Dr. Franklin R. Guenther received a 1997 Department of Commerce Bronze Medal for his development and implementation of programs for the realization of national traceability and international comparability of chemical measurements.

Department of Commerce Silver Medal Award

Drs. Franklin R. Guenther and William D. Dorko received the 2003 Department of Commerce Silver Medal Award for their contributions in the development and implementation of the NIST Traceable Reference Materials (NTRM) Program for gas mixture standards. Their overall efforts have resulted in dramatically increasing the number of gas standards available to underpin emissions trading and automobile emissions testing in the U.S. Their efforts [along with those of the entire Gas metrology Team] have also contributed to increased product quality and revenue for the specialty gas industry.

Dr. Richard Lindstrom received the 2003 Department of Commerce Silver Medal Award for his development and delivery of cutting-edge nuclear technology to support national non-proliferation efforts. Dr. Lindstrom has contributed to the NIST effort in non-proliferation for more than two decades. Some of his major achievements in this area include optimization of a method to determine critical isotopic ratios; development of low-background gamma-ray spectrometry methods to detect, quantify, and interpret minute quantities of radioactive species; and development of a novel activatable tracer system for quantifying the distribution of particulate material released into the atmosphere.

Judson C. French Award

Drs. Robert Greenberg, Richard Lindstrom and David Simons received the 2003 Judson C. French Award for their development and critical evaluation of an Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis Method for the determination of arsenic in silicon, and transferring this technology to the semiconductor industry’s chip fabrication lines through their development of a series of Ion Implant in Silicon Depth Profiling SRMs. Arsenic is one of the primary dopants used in silicon semiconductor technology, and the accurate control of its ion-implanted dose is critical to maintaining high device.

Edward Bennett Rosa Award

Drs. Steven Choquette, Edgar Etz, and Wilbur Hurst and Mr. Douglas Blackburn received the Edward Bennett Rosa Award for their development of SRM 2241 through SRM 2244, Raman Intensity Correction Standards that will enable U.S. industry to accurately inter-compare data.

Dr. David L. Duewer received the 2003 Edward Bennett Rosa Award for his innovative use of visualization techniques to summarize and communicate complex statistical information from interlaboratory DNA profiling and health-related studies, multi-vendor NIST Traceable Reference Material qualification data, and multi-national intercomparison results. His procedures for combining, summarizing and visualizing massive amounts of complex scientific data provides results that are much more understandable and useful to a much wider audience.

Eugene Casson Crittenden Award
Ms. Donna J. Kimball received the 2003 Eugene Casson Crittenden Award for her sustained superior contributions in support of programs within the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, NIST and the Department of Commerce.

Measurement Services Award (Category -- SRM Development)

Dr. Michael J. Welch received a 1999 Measurement Services Award for his contributions as the "technical champion" for the development of a number of critical health-related SRMs. Dr. Welch's contributions to the development of health-related SRMs have focused in three areas: (1) the development and maintenance of the "definitive" methods used for certification of clinical analytes such as cholesterol, glucose, creatinine, triglycerides, urea, and uric acid; and (3) the development of SRMs for drugs of abuse in urine and hair; and (3) development of SRMs for cholesterol and fatty acids in food matrices, particularly the recently issued Meat Homogenate.

Dr. Franklin R. Guenther and Dr. Pamela M. Chu received a 1998 Measurement Services Award for their contributions for the development of the Quantitative Infrared Database to support remote sensing of hazardous air pollutant molecules.

George C. Rhoderick received a 1998 Measurement Services Award for his contributions for the development of the primary standards preparation and measurement technology for the production of volatile organic compound (VOC) standard reference materials.

Dr. John C. Travis received a 1997 Measurement Services Award for his contributions for the development and maintenance of NIST standards for chemical spectrophotometry.

NIST Safety Award for Superior Accomplishment

Drs. Franklin Guenther and Gerald Mitchell received the 2003 NIST Safety Award for Superior Accomplishment based on their development and implementation of an efficient process for inventorying and cataloging the more than 12,000 chemicals used to support research and measurement service activities within the Analytical Chemistry Division.

CSTL Secretarial Achievement Award
Donna Kimball received the 2004 CSTL Secretarial Achievement Award for her outstanding skils and providing extraordinary service to the staff and programs of CSTL.