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Visitor Information
NIST operates in two main locations: Gaithersburg, Maryland, and Boulder, Colorado. NIST jointly operates research organizations in four additional locations explicitly established to promote cross-disciplinary collaborations that accelerate research results.
Campus Access & Security
All visitors must be preregistered and present photo identification and vehicle registration information upon arrival. NIST can only accept a state-issued driver’s license or identification card for access to federal facilities if issued by states that are REAL ID compliant or have an extension. Details...
Please make sure you read the NIST Visitor and Contractor Protocols for Mitigating COVID-19 Exposure on NIST Campuses page before arriving on site.
Other Locations
JILA, Boulder, CO. JILA was founded in 1962 as a joint institute of Colorado University (CU) Boulder and NIST. JILA is located at the base of the Rocky Mountains on the CU Boulder campus in the Duane Physics complex. Creative collaborations among the JILA Fellows, their groups, CU professors, and NIST staff members play a key role in generating the pioneering research JILA is known for around the world. Major initiatives, such as NSF’s Physics Frontier Center and NSF’s Engineering Research Center for Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) Science and Technology, make major contributions to JILA’s cutting edge research programs.
Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research (IBBR) Rockville, MD. IBBR was established by the University System of Maryland Board of Regents in 2010, building on the foundation of the Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology (CARB) and the Center for Biosystems Research (CBR). CARB was founded in 1984 as a novel partnership among the University of Maryland, the Montgomery County, Maryland government, and NIST. This partnership was formalized in 1986 through a Memorandum of Understanding between NIST and the University of Maryland that affirmed each partner’s commitment to share scientific expertise and resources, to train the future scientific leaders and to collaborate for the advancement of biotechnology.
Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), College Park, MD. The Joint Quantum Institute (JQI) is pursuing that goal through the work of leading quantum scientists from the Department of Physics of the University of Maryland (UMD), the Laboratory for Physical Sciences (LPS), and NIST. Each institution brings to JQI major experimental and theoretical research programs that are dedicated to the goals of controlling and exploiting quantum systems.
Hollings Marine Laboratory (HML), Charleston, SC. Located on the Fort Johnson Campus at the South Carolina Marine Resources Center on the tip of James Island, in Charleston, SC, the HML is a unique partnership of governmental and academic agencies including NOAA 's National Ocean Service, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources, the College of Charleston, the Medical University of South Carolina, and NIST. By having part of its staff located at the HML and working collaboratively with scientists from the partner institutions, NIST is better able to develop programs within its mission that respond to the needs of the marine research community. It allows NIST to investigate new areas of scientific and technological development by taking advantage of the expertise of the diverse scientific community at HML.