Testimony
of
Dr.
William Jeffrey
National
Technology
Administration
Before the
Senate Committee
on Appropriations
Subcommittee
on Commerce, Science, Justice and Related Agencies
March 1,
2007
Madam Chair Mikulski,
Ranking Member Shelby and Members of the Subcommittee, I am pleased to appear
before you today to present the President’s FY 2008 Budget request for the
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This is a strong budget for NIST and it will
further enhance NIST’s ability to support the measurement and standards needs
of
NIST’s Impact on Innovation and the Economy
NIST has a long history of being at the forefront of new innovations through our high-impact measurements and standards. In 2003, the National Academy of Engineering identified 20 of the greatest engineering achievements of the 20th century – including automobiles, aircraft, lasers, computers, and the internet. NIST measurements and standards were integral to the successful development and adoption of virtually every one. Now NIST is paving the way for the greatest achievements of the 21st century which are still yet to be imagined.
NIST’s measurement science and standards form part of the foundation upon which innovation is built. Just as the nation’s physical infrastructure (e.g., roads or power grid) define the nation’s capacity to build and transport goods – the nation has an innovation infrastructure which defines the nation’s capacity to innovate. And investment in long-term basic research like that done at NIST is an integral component of the innovation infrastructure. As stated in the National Academy of Sciences’ Rising Above the Gathering Storm, “The power of research is demonstrated not only by single innovations but by the ability to create entire new industries.”
NIST researchers are world leaders in their fields. They
frequently arrive at the “cutting edge” of science before anyone else. And once
there, they partner with industry and academia to identify and overcome
barriers that can slow or even halt the progress of new innovations. With the proposed FY
2008 budget, NIST will continue developing the measurement and standards tools that
enable
NIST continues to meet the nation’s highest priorities by
focusing on high impact research and investing in the capacity and capability
of our user facilities and labs. This
emphasis is validated by the high rate of return to the nation that the NIST
labs already have demonstrated. Nineteen
retrospective studies of economic impact show that, on average, NIST labs
generated a benefit-to-cost ratio of 44:1 to the
NIST supports
Measurements
– NIST researchers recently developed new measurement techniques that allow for
rapid and cost-effective assessments of advanced materials that are used in a
range of products from new detergents to improved adhesives for next-generation
electronics. Previously, it could cost
industry $20 million to develop and understand the characteristics of one new
material. With this NIST measurement
advance, the cost and time are estimated to have been cut by 80 percent. To facilitate the transfer of this technique
to industry, NIST organized an open consortium now consisting of 23 members
that are learning to use and adapt these new measurement techniques. As a scientist from Honeywell International
put it, “…NIST offers an invaluable
resource to show what can be done, and how to go about it.
Standards – Nanotechnology has the potential to revolutionize manufacturing. And one of the most promising nanomaterials is the carbon nanotube. Carbon nanotubes have unique electronic and mechanical properties that lend themselves to a variety of applications, ranging from the development of stronger and lighter materials to nanowires and transistors for miniature electronics. Regardless of the potential application, the quality of the materials is paramount. Unfortunately, current production techniques for carbon nanotubes result in products with high levels of uncertainty in their quality and uniformity. To address this concern, NIST is currently developing a carbon nanotube reference material. This reference material, when deployed, can be used by any nanotube manufacturer to validate their product’s quality, purity, and consistency and accelerate the adoption of carbon nanotubes into more sophisticated devices.
National
User Facilities -- NIST operates world-class user facilities that benefit
the entire
The President recognized NIST’s critical
role for the nation as part of the American Competitiveness Initiative (ACI). The
ACI describes NIST as: “… a high-leverage Federal research agency that
performs high-impact basic research and supports the successful technical
translation and everyday use of economically significant innovations…” Under
the ACI, overall funding for NIST’s core, the National Science Foundation, and
the Department of Energy’s Office of Science is together slated to double by
2016.
Preparing for the Future
The 21st century will
be defined by technology innovations that fundamentally change the products and
services available, the way they are manufactured and provided, and the impact
on our quality of life. These advances
will arise from basic research now beginning in, for example, nanotechnology,
quantum science, and alternative energies – all areas in which NIST has a
strong and increasing focus with its investments.
The goal of increasing physical sciences research at NIST (along with that supported by the National Science Foundation and the Department of Energy’s Office of Science) provides a unique opportunity to strategically establish the programs, plans, and infrastructure that will more than double the impact that NIST has on the economy. To prepare for the future, NIST is working with industry to identify critical measurement barriers to innovation, evaluating the capacity and capability of NIST’s physical infrastructure, forming new and strengthening existing partnerships, and updating the ways it stimulates the knowledge transfer from its labs to industry and academia.
For example, over the past year, NIST worked with over 1000 experts from industry and universities to identify measurement barriers to innovation in a number of critical industry sectors. Over 700 technical barriers were identified, analyzed, and documented in a report. NIST is now in the process of working with industry, universities, and other government agencies to address many of these identified barriers over the coming years.
In terms of facilities, NIST has conducted a rigorous
evaluation of its laboratory capacity and capabilities on its
NIST also serves industry and academia by being a steward of
world-class user facilities. As part of
the ACI, NIST identified two important opportunities first called out in the FY
2007 budget and enhanced in the FY 2008 budget – increased capacity and
capability of the
The ACI provides NIST the opportunity to further promote
FY 2008 President’s Budget
The increased funding provided through the FY 2008 request will directly support innovative advances in broad sectors of the economy as well as improve the safety and quality of life for our citizens. The following table summarizes the proposed FY 2008 budget. In this table we show both the FY 2007 President’s budget and the FY 2007 continuing resolution (P.L. 110-5) for comparisons as different baselines.
Budget Summary ($ million) Showing Both FY 2007
President’s Request and P.L. 110-5 as Baselines
|
FY 2007 President’s Request |
FY 2007 Continuing Resolution (P.L. 110-5)[1] |
FY 2008 President’s Request |
|
Change Between FY 2008 and FY 2007 Request |
Change Between FY 2008 and P.L. 110-5 |
STRS (Labs) |
467.0 |
432.8 |
500.5 |
|
33.5 |
67.7 |
CRF (Facilities) |
68.0 |
58.7 |
93.9 |
|
25.9 |
35.2 |
Core Subtotal: |
535 |
491.4 |
594.4 |
|
59.4 |
102.9 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
ITS (MEP + ATP) Subtotal: |
46.3 |
183.6 |
46.3 |
|
0 |
(137.3) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
TOTAL: |
581.3 |
675.1 |
640.7 |
|
59.4 |
(34.4) |
The FY 2008 budget was formulated with the FY 2007 President’s request as the baseline. Since P.L. 110-5 provides a smaller budget for the NIST core (STRS and CRF) than the FY 2007 President’s request by $43.6 million, some proposed initiatives in FY 2007 that will not receive full funding are implicitly contained within the President’s FY 2008 request. New initiatives and program increases are described in more detail below:
Scientific and Technical Research Services (STRS)
Enabling
Nanotechnology from Discovery to Manufacture (+$6 million)
The potential market for products containing nanomaterials is estimated at over $1 trillion by 2015. Because of their small size -- a thousand times thinner than a human hair -- nanoscale products require entirely novel ways to characterize their physical properties and fully exploit their unique characteristics in the manufacture of new products.
In FY 2007, NIST began a major initiative to address the
measurement barriers hindering rapid development of nanotechnologies. A new
The research initiatives proposed in FY 2008 will build on recent NIST advances by:
· Developing ways to measure strength, stress, strain, optical, and electronic properties of nanostructures to improve processes and understanding of failure mechanisms;
· Creating three-dimensional, high-resolution imaging methods that reveal details of structure, chemical composition, and manufacturing defects and allow researchers to view nanostructures as they interact with their environment;
· Simulating nanoscale phenomena with computer models to allow economical development of production methods for complex nanodevices; and
· Producing the measurement techniques required to address the interagency efforts to characterize nanotechnology impacts to our health, safety, and environment.
Measurements and
Standards for the Climate Change Science Program (+$5 million)
The climate is changing. Determining how fast it is changing, and understanding the complex relationships between all the environmental variables is a critical objective of the U.S. Climate Change Science Program. Many different climate monitoring systems in space, in the air, and on the ground are currently monitoring solar output as well as trapped and reflected heat by the Earth’s atmosphere. These systems are operated by many countries and research groups. Establishment of absolute calibration and standard references will allow accurate intercomparisons of these systems, will help identify small environmental changes occurring over many years, and will reduce uncertainties in the data input to global climate change models.
With the proposed FY 2008 funding, NIST will, working in coordination with other agencies, develop:
Enabling Innovation
Through Quantum Science (+$4 million)
Unlike the laws of physics that govern our “every day” world, the laws of physics that govern the quantum world of atoms, electrons, and light particles are fundamentally different. These quantum particles are able to interact in ways that according to human experience would seem impossible. For example, a quantum particle can actually be in two different places simultaneously.
Conceptualizing these phenomena is difficult to say the least, but developing ways to exploit them for the development of technologically significant innovations is even more challenging. NIST, however, has world-class scientists who are leaders in the emerging field of quantum information science. Three NIST scientists have won Nobel Prizes in the last 10 years based on their work in this field. Many of the best minds in physics today believe that applications of quantum science will transform the 21st century just as integrated circuits and classical electronics revolutionized the 20th century.
The proposed FY 2008 initiative will build upon NIST’s
significant expertise in this area, and leverage the collaborations established
in the recently created Joint Quantum Institute between the
Disaster Resilient
Structures and Communities (+$4 million)
The past few years have reminded us that both natural
hazards – including extreme winds, storm surge, wildland fires, earthquakes,
and tsunamis – as well as terrorist actions, are a continuing and significant
threat to
The proposed FY 2008 initiative will, working in coordination with other agencies, develop:
National Earthquake
Hazards Reduction (+$3.25 million)
Many earthquakes strike without warning. Within the
This initiative will enhance the safety of:
Construction of Research Facilities (CRF)
Building 1 Extension
(B1E) – Enabling Sustained Scientific Advancement and Innovation (+$28 million)
When President Eisenhower dedicated the NIST facilities in
The $28 million proposed in the FY 2008 budget will leverage previously proposed funds ($10.1 million) in the FY 2007 budget to construct state-of-the-art laboratory space that will meet the stringent environmental conditions required for 21st century scientific advances. An additional $38.1 million will be needed in FY 2009 to complete the project. With a total cost of $76.2 million, the Building 1 Extension is the most cost-effective approach to enabling world-class measurement science in support of some of the country’s most important economic sectors.
The NCNR is widely regarded as the most
scientifically-productive and cost-effective neutron facility in the
This initiative begun in FY 2007 is the second-year of a planned five-year program to expand significantly the capacity and capabilities of the NCNR. The program includes the development of a new neutron cold source together with a new hall to house the guide tube, modernization of the control system, and five new world-class neutron instruments. The specific FY 2008 funding will complete construction of the new guide hall.
Industrial
Technology Services
Hollings Manufacturing Extension
Partnership (MEP) ($46.3 million – no change from FY 2007 President’s request;
-$58.3 million from P.L. 110-5)
The MEP program is a partnership between the Federal government and local officials to provide assistance to small and medium sized manufacturers around the country. Surveys taken of companies one year after receiving MEP assistance indicate a significant financial benefit accrued to the individual company.
The Federal government is an important partner in the MEP program. Specifically, the Federal government:
The above Federal role can be accomplished within the requested budget. The reduction of Federal funds to the local centers may have to be compensated through a combination of increased fees derived from the benefits accrued by individual companies and cost-savings in the operations of the centers.
Advanced Technology Program (ATP) ($0 – no change from FY 2007 President’s request)
No funds for ATP are requested in the President’s FY 2008 budget. The FY 2006 enacted budget and the 109th Congress’ House mark and Senate Appropriations committee mark were consistent with the phase-out of the ATP program. The last new awards were made in 2004 and sufficient funds were available in the carryover to complete all awards and provide government oversight.
The FY 2007 Continuing Resolution (P.L. 100-5) recently
signed by the President included funding for the ATP program. NIST will work with Congress to ensure the
funds are executed in the most effective manner to promote
Summary
Measurements and standards are the bedrock upon which any economy stands. Our founding fathers recognized this. The Constitution assigns the Federal government responsibility to both issue money and to “fix the standards of weights and measures.” The two are actually more similar than they might seem at first glance.
All economic transactions rest fundamentally on trust – trust between two parties that a given amount of something is worth a given amount of something else. Helping to create that trust for innovative new technologies is the common theme that runs through all of NIST’s proposed FY 2008 research initiatives. Each helps build a missing or inadequate measurement base – a rigorous, accepted way of quantitatively describing something – that improves confidence in scientific results or improves the quality, reliability or safety of innovative products. Recent NIST measurements and standards research have enabled innovations now embedded in the iPod, body armor currently saving the lives of domestic law enforcement officers and our service men and women overseas, and in diagnostic screening devices for cancer patients making their treatment more targeted and accurate. The results of NIST research can be found in virtually every manufacturing and service industry.
For nearly 106 years, NIST research has been critical to our nation’s current and future competitiveness. The increased funding in the President’s FY 2008 budget for the NIST core will directly support technological advances in broad sectors of the economy that will quite literally define the 21st century -- as well as improve the safety and quality of life for all our citizens.
Biography
Dr. William
Jeffrey is the 13th Director of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST), sworn into the office on
As Director of
NIST, Dr. Jeffrey oversees an array of programs that promote
Dr. Jeffrey has been involved in federal science and technology programs and policy since 1988. Previous to his appointment to NIST he served as Senior Director for Homeland and National Security and the Assistant Director for Space and Aeronautics at the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) within the Executive Office of the President. Earlier, he was the Deputy Director for the Advanced Technology Office and Chief Scientist for the Tactical Technology Office with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). While at DARPA, Dr. Jeffrey advanced research programs in communications, computer network security, novel sensor development, and space operations.
Prior to joining DARPA, Dr. Jeffrey was the Assistant Deputy for Technology at the Defense Airborne Reconnaissance Office, where he supervised sensor development for the Predator and Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicles and the development of common standards that allow for cross-service and cross-agency transfer of imagery and intelligence products. He also spent several years working at the Institute for Defense Analyses performing technical analyses in support of the Department of Defense.
Dr.
Jeffrey received his Ph.D. in astronomy from