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NIST Overview

HISTORY

Identified by the Articles of Confederation in 1781, and noted in the U.S. Constitution, the significance of measurement was articulated in President George Washington’s first address to Congress in 1790 that stated succinctly: “Uniformity in the Currency, Weights and Measures of the United States is an object of great importance, and will, I am persuaded, be duly attended to” (Founders Online National Archive).

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was originally founded in 1901 as the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), becoming the federal government’s first physical sciences laboratory. The NIST of today is the inheritor and continuation of a mission vital to the United States’ economic, scientific, and national security needs. NIST’s mission is to “promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve quality of life.” Its vision is to “be the world’s leader in creating critical measurement solutions and promoting equitable standards. [NIST] efforts stimulate innovation, foster industrial competitiveness, and improve the quality of life” (NIST 2022a).

Before the founding of NBS, the standards for measurements varied across the United States (e.g., there were eight different definitions of “gallon”) and these discrepancies caused confusion that impeded trade and commerce. Growing industrialization and electrification in the United States—and recognition that European industrial competitors were supported by first-rate national measurement laboratories—spurred the creation of NBS. Originally located in Washington, DC, NBS headquarters relocated to Gaithersburg, Maryland, in 1961 with the agency adding a major laboratory campus in Boulder, Colorado, in the 1950s.

NBS’s early work enabled the expansion of U.S. commerce and trade through the improved application of uniform weights and measures. NBS research enhanced railroad safety through materials research that dramatically lowered failures of steel rails, created radio direction-finding instrumentation for maritime navigation and aircraft landings, and determined standards to improve safety of nascent X-ray diagnostic imaging. The technical contributions of NBS scientists and engineers have been vital to national security and law enforcement since its inception. For example, NBS staff analyzed the properties of uranium and developed methods for removing impurities, work that was later transferred to the Manhattan Project. They also invented the proximity fuse, first used in World War II, and that led to the spinoff of the U.S. Army Harry Diamond Laboratories (now the Army Research Laboratory headquartered in Adelphi, Maryland).

In 1998, NBS was renamed and reorganized into NIST as part of an expansion of its role to support technology in the economy, American competitiveness, and U.S. manufacturing. Its work fulfills a constitutional authority to “fix the standard of weights and measures.” Fittingly, the original parchments of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights displayed at the National Archives are protected in an argon-filled enclosure and monitoring system designed, developed, and built by NIST.

As NIST’s work grew in breadth and importance, so did its reliance on the number and character of laboratories, administrations, and support facilities. Advanced laboratory performance proved especially important due to the specialized apparatus that researchers require for accurate and complex measurements, which often have critical dependencies on the building environment. As scientific and technological progress increasingly impacts the economy and national security—and NIST continues to undertake more mission-essential programs—the functionality, performance, and reliability of its technical facilities are integral parts of strategies, plans, and budgets.

CORE COMPETENCIES

The keys to NIST’s capabilities are found in the following core competencies:

• Measurement science, which is the focus on developing and refining units of measurement and their application through research into techniques that include robust uncertainty statements.
• Rigorous traceability provides the means for transferring NIST’s primary and secondary measurement standards—through publication, collaboration, calibrations, and reference materials—for use by industry, government, and academic laboratories, thereby ensuring uniformity and trust among participants.
• Development and use of standards includes both measurements standards that facilitate traceability and the support of documentary standards that enhance commerce and innovation.

ORGANIZATION AND RESOURCES

NIST is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland. There are complementary laboratories in Boulder, Colorado, begun under the Eisenhower administration in 1951. The Boulder site houses the NIST-F1, the nation’s unique atomic clock. NIST facilities also include radio stations WWVH in Kauai, Hawaii, and WWV in Fort Collins, Colorado, which transmit time and frequency information. These stations are not included in this study due to their small size and unique purpose.

NIST is divided into three main units that are described below:

• Laboratory programs, which perform the measurement science mission
• The innovation and industry services directorate that oversees external programs
• Management resources, which provides support services

Laboratory Programs

NIST research is performed in six laboratories, overseen by the associate director for Laboratory Programs, which drive the measurement science mission and activities. These are the

• Communications Technology Laboratory (CTL)
• Engineering Laboratory
• Information Technology Laboratory
• Center for Neutron Research
• Material Measurement Laboratory
• Physical Measurement Laboratory

All six Laboratories have operations in Gaithersburg. The Boulder campus hosts four laboratories: the Information Technology Laboratory, Material Measurement Laboratory, Physical Measurement Laboratory, and CTL (which is headquartered in Boulder). The NIST laboratories also support 10 collaborative research institutes that extend their measurement science program by leveraging expertise within various partner institutions.

Industrial Technology Services

NIST also has a non-laboratory directorate that oversees three extramural programs:

• The Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP), which assists small and mid-size manufacturers in their adoption of advanced technologies and practices to improve their competitiveness and supports innovation and creates jobs through a network of 51 MEP centers in every state and Puerto Rico.
• The Baldrige Performance Excellence Program, which administers the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, an annual presidential award that recognizes performance excellence in organizations.
• The Office of Advanced Manufacturing that serves as the headquarters for the interagency national program to coordinate Manufacturing USA, a network of 16 public–private institutes funded by the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and NIST. Each institute works to develop innovative processes and practices that underpin a specific advanced technology. NIST funding supports one institute, the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, that focuses on developing efficient and flexible manufacturing capabilities for existing and emerging biologic products.

Management Resources

This directorate operates all NIST support services, such as budget, human resources, safety, acquisitions, grants, and information technology (IT). The organization also includes the Office of Facilities and Property Management (OFPM) that oversees the construction, renovation, repair, and upkeep of NIST facilities. Because of this responsibility, OFPM and its activities are a focus of this report.

The mission of the OFPM is “to advance NIST’s mission success by planning, building, operating, maintaining, and servicing facilities that provide a safe, secure, and sustainable environment” NIST 2022b). To meet the NIST strategic goal of creating the infrastructure for a 21st century research institution, the following strategies were established for OFPM:

• Facilitate the next-generation research data infrastructure
• Develop and implement plans for major facility upgrades
• Upgrade the IT infrastructure and develop a sustainable plan for future growth
• Adopt and transition to modern business systems and operational practices

OFPM periodically evaluates and revises its organization so it will be a dynamic resource for the staff working in technical and administrative buildings, ensuring rigorous performance and collaboration in tactical execution and strategic planning. The department now has approximately 305 staff members divided into three major functions: facility management, operations and maintenance, and design and construction, as well as management and administration. The director of OFPM reports to the associate director of management resources.

NIST Budget

The 2022 appropriated budget for NIST totaled $1.2 billion, which supports approximately 3,500 federal employees who provide the scientific, management, and administrative functions of the institution. In addition, this supports approximately 3,500 associates (contractors, post-doctoral researchers, guest researchers, and students) who work in the NIST laboratories for training, technology transfer, or research support.

NIST receives congressional appropriations through three major accounts:

• Scientific and Technical Research and Services (STRS) funds the mission-focused activities of the laboratory programs. In 2022, this activity received $812 million. The laboratory programs generally receive an additional non-appropriated $100 million or so per year from other government agencies and companies to perform reimbursable measurement sciences work.
• Industrial Technology Services, which received $175 million in 2022, including $158 million for MEP.
• Construction of Research Facilities, which funds new construction and Safety, Capacity, Maintenance, and Major Repairs (an account known as SCMMR). Construction of Research Facilities funds (1) repairs and recapitalization to bring them up to current functioning; (2) renovation upgrades to buildings for emerging needs in programs, equipment, and staff; and (3) construction of new facilities for significant step-changes in function, priorities, and growth. While this account received a significant boost to $206 million in 2022, $126 million of this increase was congressionally earmarked to provide renovation and expansion of research facilities at various universities and was not used toward the NIST mission. Funds for NIST facilities were $80 million in 2022, unchanged from 2021 and $60 million below the President’s budget request (P.L. 117-103).

NIST does not receive a budget line for administration and operations. Rather, all expenditures made by nonsupport programs are “taxed” to create an Institutional Support fund. Institutional Support funds activities such as human resources, finance, procurement, safety, and physical security. Institutional Support also funds facility operations like janitorial services and utilities. Laboratory program activities are taxed at a rate of 31 percent. SCMMR programs are taxed at a lighter rate of 4.5 percent.

More recently, the bipartisan U.S. CHIPS and Science Act of 2022 (CHIPS Act), signed into law on August 9, 2022, provides significant opportunity and challenges for NIST. The Act is the result of a bicameral conference effort that negotiated differences between the America COMPETES Act of 2022 (H.R. 4521, passed in February 2022) and the U.S. Innovation and Competition Act of 2021 (S. 1260, passed in April 2021). The act provides a direct appropriation of more than $56 billion, including $50 billion into semiconductor device research and semiconductor manufacturing incentives allocated to DOC. In addition to $39 billion in manufacturing incentives, the CHIPS Act appropriates $11 billion to DOC over 5 years to fund a National Semiconductor Technology Center, a National Advanced Packaging Manufacturing Program, and related research and development (R&D) programs. NIST immediately received between $3 billion to $5 billion and is scheduled to receive an additional $2 billion in fiscal year (FY) 2023, a significant immediate increase in funding. Significant responsibility for this activity has been delegated to NIST.

In addition, the Act authorizes multiyear appropriations for NIST under Title II: National Institute of Standards and Technology or the Future. This was informed, in part, by the National Institute of Standards and Technology for the Future Act of 2021 (H.R. 4609) that was report by the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, but did not receive a vote of the full House. Features of Title II of the CHIPS Act relevant to NIST include:

• Authorizes an increase in STRS funding to $979,100,000 in FY 2023, increasing annually to reach $1,283,360,000 in FY 2027, a 58 percent increase over FY 2022 STRS funding.
• Authorizes increases for the MEP from $158 million (FY 2022) to $550 million in 2027, to include $135 million over 5 years to establish the National Supply Chain Database.
• Authorizes $829 million (over 5 years) to create new, competitively awarded manufacturing research institutes under the Manufacturing USA Program.

STRS generally supports intramural R&D at NIST, so this increase may directly translate to new requirements for laboratory and office capacity. MEP and Manufacturing USA are extramural programs, though will likely require additional office space for program staff.

Title II also authorizes an increase in the construction account to $200 million for each year through 2027. Of this funding, $80 million is authorized for SCMMR in 2023. From 2024 to 2027, $200 million continues to be authorized, of which $80 million is for SCMMR and $20 million is for IT infrastructure. The suitability of this funding level compared to NIST current and planned facilities is discussed in later chapters of this report. The

proposed authorization in H.R. 4609 of a “NIST Facilities Modernization Fund” for capital projects related to the “modernization, renovation, and construction of research facilities needed to conduct leading edge scientific and technical research” was not included in the Title II legislation.

STRATEGIC NIST GOALS

NIST’s current strategic plan for the years 2020-2025, titled Shaping the Future of NIST was released in 2020 (NIST 2020b). The plan defines a clear path for NIST and spells out strategies and actions that will help the agency to thrive. It ensures that the agency is postured to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness into the future. It lays out the following strategic goals:

• Position NIST to advance U.S. science and innovation—ensure that NIST has the workforce, organizational structures, and partnerships to support the development and adoption of emerging technologies critical to innovation and U.S. economic competitiveness.
• Maximize NIST’s stakeholder impact through high-value services—optimize delivery, streamline processes, and strengthen stakeholder engagement.
• Create the infrastructure for a 21st century research institution—ensure that NIST has both the physical and IT infrastructures to carry out its programs.
• Build a One NIST Culture—ensure that federal staff and NIST associates are united (NIST 2020b).

The DOC 2022-2026 strategic plan assigns NIST the lead agency role for achieving three of the department’s strategic objectives related to the U.S. innovation and global competitiveness goal: revitalize U.S. manufacturing and strengthen domestic supply chains; accelerate the development, commercialization, and deployment of critical and emerging technologies; and improve the nation’s cybersecurity and protect federal government networks. Within these goals, NIST is to lead execution of the following:

• Advance U.S. leadership in semiconductors
• Increase the resilience and diversity of critical, domestic supply chains
• Accelerate technology development and deployment in U.S. manufacturing
• Promote research, applications, and standards for emerging technologies such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and advanced communications
• Strengthen U.S. participation in technical standards development
• Strengthen the competitiveness of America’s R&D ecosystem through inclusive commercialization and technology transfer of critical and emerging technologies
• Develop and disseminate robust technical standards and cybersecurity best practices and improve the security and integrity of the technology supply chain

In addition, NIST further contributes to 15 of the 23 strategic objectives within the plan’s five strategic goals (DOC 2022).

The White House’s Office of Management and Budget and Office of Science and Technology Policy annual memorandum on Multi-Agency Research and Development Priorities for the FY 2023 Budget, which sets the President’s R&D priorities, lists many technology areas that are NIST strengths. These include climate adaptation and resilience (specifically including measuring greenhouse gas emissions); catalyzing research and innovation in critical and emerging technologies (specifically naming artificial intelligence, quantum information science, advanced communications technologies, microelectronics, and biotechnology); and national security and economic resilience (to include new capabilities for defending critical infrastructure and sensitive networks against cyberattacks and supply chain attacks). The goals of the White House, DOC, and NIST are reflected in NIST’s programs and priorities (White House 2021).

MISSION PROGRAMS AND PRIORITIES

As an example of the breadth of NIST’s potential impact, the President’s budget request for 2023 included new efforts to ensure U.S. leadership in key national priority areas that include quantum information science, artificial intelligence, bioeconomy, advanced communications, public safety communications, and standards for critical and emerging technologies. Threaded through these priorities, NIST expertise delivers concrete results in documentary standards, technology transfer, and measurement dissemination. These last three deliverables were and remain the critical lifeblood of an innovation economy.

NIST laboratory programs advance the frontiers of measurement science and ensure the U.S. system of measurements is firmly grounded in sound scientific and technical principles. Today, they address increasingly complex challenges, ranging from measuring the very small (nanoscale devices) to the very large (vehicles and buildings). The laboratories also deal with both physical (e.g., advanced materials and electronics) and virtual (e.g., cybersecurity and cloud computing) systems. As new technologies evolve and become more complex, NIST’s research and services remain central to innovation, productivity, trade, and public safety and security. Through this work, the NIST laboratory programs provide industry, other agencies, and academia with the scientific underpinnings for basic and derived measurement units, internationally accepted standards, measurement and calibration services, and certified reference materials.

NIST’S VALUE TO THE NATION

Widely available, accurate, and precise measurements and standards improve not only the trade of current products, but also enable the development of both new products and technologies. As famously expressed by 17th century scientist Lord Kelvin: “To measure is to know. If you cannot measure it, you cannot improve it” (Saxon 2007). Researchers working at the vanguard of technologies require cutting-edge measurement capabilities to analyze and replicate their findings as a critical step in understanding new phenomena. NIST’s efforts—creating critical measurement solutions, enabling research, and leading world measurement standards—provide a key tool to support U.S. technological competitiveness.

NIST leads these activities because the private sector has little incentive to do so. For example, while a business can operate profitably by making and selling voltmeters, it cannot profitably support the millions of dollars in annual cost required to maintain the national voltage. Measurement standards provide what economists term a public good that is non-exclusive and non-competitive. These attributes are apt because the value of measurement standards increases as they are more widely used and lower transaction costs. If every state used a different definition of a meter, interstate commerce would incur excess costs since customers would require additional conversion and measurement steps to verify the physical compatibility of products. The need for common measurement standards becomes especially acute for high-technology products for which devices require very detailed measurements, or for mass manufacturing where many parts must come together with a very low tolerance for deviation.

Moreover, public goods suffer from a market failure known as the free rider problem. Because maximum benefit accrues as measurement standards are widely adopted, it becomes counter-productive (if not impossible) for individual users to pay for measurement standards. As a result, publicly funded measurement standards derived from a national metrology institute are the most efficient model and have been adopted by all technological countries in the world.

As the U.S. economy and commerce have become more technologically advanced, NIST measurements and standards have become more pervasive across numerous industry sectors, and NIST technical leadership gives U.S. companies a competitive advantage in the global economy while simultaneously supporting U.S. national security needs. They provide leading-edge measurements that support scientific breakthroughs. They ensure the accuracy of medical instrumentation, diagnostics tests, and clinical therapies. They are required for the operation of fiber optic and wireless communications systems and the Global Positioning System (GPS). They are applied to control the quality and improve the yields of manufacturing and chemical processes. They underpin financial transactions and address the full range of cybersecurity from critical infrastructure to business processes. NIST performs this unique role through core competencies in measurement science, rigorous traceability, and the development and use of standards.

By working closely with U.S. industry and laboratories to provide the measurement standards needed to support the most current science and engineering challenges, NIST plays a critical and unique role in the innovation ecosystem. As the world’s leading national metrology institute, NIST collaborates with other organizations around the world to ensure global adoption of rigorous, accurate, and transparent measurement standards. These facilitate trade and reduce barriers while providing the most advanced capabilities to U.S. customers, further strengthening U.S. industry by providing the most advanced measurement capabilities at home.

Economic Impact

External assessments of the economic impact of 16 specific NIST programs show a remarkable rate of return on investment. These retrospective studies report a benefit-cost ratio (BCR) that indicates the number of dollars in benefit to industry that have resulted from the NIST product or service for each of the dollars invested, adjusted for inflation. Of 16 studies performed between 2000 and 2011, the median BCR was 9, with the lowest BCR being 4 (for flat-panel display metrology) and the highest BCR being 249 (for computer security role-based access control development) (NIST 2018). Assuming the median 9:1 return on investment, the 2022 appropriation of $812 million for NIST’s laboratory programs represents a benefit-to-cost yield of over $7.3 billion to the U.S. economy and citizens.

Key NIST Accomplishments

NIST has a rich history of accomplishment in areas as diverse as vaccine storage, emerging electronics technologies, community resilience, and manufacturing robotics. Externally, this is recognized by awards from the science community for NIST technical expertise and results, including five Nobel Prizes. Examples spanning a variety of technologies follow.

Science

NIST developed the world’s first atomic clock in 1940. Successive improvements underpin the current time and frequency standards that are required for wireless and optical communication and GPS systems. Current research has developed quantum and lattice clocks with uncertainties of 1 part in 10¹⁸ (or one second over the lifetime of the universe). In addition to measurement science applications, this level of performance can be used as sensitive probes of dark matter, improved timing and navigation systems, and better measurements of Earth’s gravitational shape.

NIST improved speed of light measurements to a world record accuracy and precision that led to the redefinition of the meter length in terms of light properties by 1983. This eliminated the need for a carefully controlled physical meter bar for length calibration.

NIST made the first demonstration of the principles that led to scanning tunneling microscopes, showing that its effects could dramatically improve microscope resolution. This technology enabled great strides in surface science, semiconductor electronics, and nanotechnology, which have brought continued increases in semiconductor device processing power.

NIST researchers developed the optical frequency comb, providing a stable ruler for frequency measurements, leading to the Nobel Prize in 2005. Continued work demonstrated applications in laser radar and chemical analysis and created compact comb systems for the commercialization of this highly accurate measurement technology.

Because the pursuit of measurement accuracy and precision drives research toward quantum limits, NIST was an early entrant in quantum science and technology. R&D in the laser cooling and trapping of atoms (recognized by a 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics), quantum clocks, entanglement, single photonics, quantized effects in superconductors, and other technologies have put NIST at the forefront of quantum communication and computing efforts. NIST’s work on quantum state control, superposition, and entangled states using optical cooling and trapping techniques of atoms have led to many advances in quantum computing, and emerging technology with the potential to solve currently intractable problems in drug discovery, logistics, and chemistry. NIST staff

received the Nobel Prize for “ground-breaking experimental methods that enable measuring and manipulation of individual quantum systems” in 2012 (NPO 2012). Quantum science and technology is now a vital component of U.S. technical priority areas in civilian and national security agencies.

Information Technology

In 1950, NIST built the first internally programmed digital computer in the United States, the Standards Eastern Automatic Computer. It developed the first optical recognition demonstration (1954) and first image scanner (1957), technologies that now underpin digital inspection and image processing. The combined system was used to scan, analyze, and count Census records in 1960.

Computer crime performed by increasingly sophisticated criminal and government actors costs billions of dollars in losses in the United States, and society’s reliance on Internet connectivity for critical infrastructure (utilities, transportation, hospitals, etc.) further intensifies security concerns. NIST issued the first publicly available cryptographic standard (based on a data encryption standard developed by IBM), greatly expanding use of encryption in digital operations. NIST continues to evaluate and select encryption standards for the United States, with a current focus on post-quantum cryptographic standards that are resistant to attack using quantum computation techniques that can potentially break encryption keys through accelerated prime number factorization. The NIST Cybersecurity Framework¹ integrates industry standards and best practices to help organizations manage their cybersecurity risks. The framework, due to its success, is required for U.S. government agencies and select contractors. The NIST National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence² provides test bed opportunities for interested parties to harden protocols while ensuring interoperability. NIST work in Internet of Things cybersecurity and communications reaps benefits of distributed technologies while ensuring security.

NIST’s Internet-time services receive over 40 billion requests per day, serving over 300 million unique devices. These services time-stamp financial transactions, synchronize distributed databases and cloud services, and set time on computer systems.

Health

NIST measurement infrastructure, which has long supported biotechnology and biopharmaceutical manufacturing, immediately adjusted course to address critical issues in the diagnosis and development of treatments for the disease caused by SARS-CoV-2 (i.e., COVID-19 or COVID) (NIST 2020a). In 2022, NIST research conducted during the COVID pandemic led to an analysis method that dramatically increases the sensitivity detection of nasal swab tests for the virus in non-symptomatic people.

NIST currently provides national standards for 11,000 U.S. mammography facilities and is the only laboratory in the world offering an advanced calibration service—based on a radiation detector 100 times more sensitive than the previous one—for checking the radiation dose in seeds used to treat prostate cancer. According to an economic analysis, this activity has a BCR of 97 (NIST 1997).

Since 1967, when NIST produced its first standard reference material for clinical applications, these tools have been used to improve the diagnosis for cholesterol levels, vitamin D deficiency, and to improve many other medical applications. For example, anchoring cholesterol measurements to a national standard has improved quality assurance while lowering evaluation costs. This leads to improved medical care and reduced cost because inaccurate cholesterol tests can lead to unnecessary care expenses and health risk. An assessment in 2000 found that this program yielded a BCR of 9 (NIST 2000a).

Biopharmaceuticals—medicines created from biologic materials such as proteins or genetic material that are increasingly used to treat cancers, autoimmune disorders, and infectious diseases—are created through growth processes defined by carefully controlled steps. Unlike traditional drugs that are small molecules characterized by

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¹ For more information, see NIST, “Cybersecurity Framework,” https://www.nist.gov/cyberframework, accessed November 30, 2022.

² For more information, see NIST, “National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence,” https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/national-cybersecurity-center-excellence, accessed November 30, 2022.

standard analytical methods, biopharmaceuticals are very large molecules and are extremely difficult to measure and analyze. Because of this difficulty, biopharmaceutical manufacturing is approved based on a fixed process rather that routine characterization of the molecules. Production efficiency can greatly increase if the ability to fully characterize the complete structure of biologics can transition from process-based to outcome-based certification. In response, NIST issued the first Monoclonal Antibody Reference Material, allowing users to measure and compare data to improve the characterization of protein-based biologic drugs.

NIST develops and manufactures physical reference standards that DNA laboratories across the country and the world use to ensure reliable results. NIST has played a key role in the history of forensic analysis, producing the world’s first DNA profiling standard for the National Institute of Justice. NIST’s Human Genome Reference Material (i.e., NIST RM 8398),³ first provided in 2015, is widely used by developers of genome sequencers, hospitals, research centers, and contract test laboratories to determine equipment accuracy. Current research and standards development conducted by NIST for the law enforcement and intelligence communities is providing next generation techniques for forensic analysis.

Energy and Environment

NIST’s ThermoData Engine Standard Reference Database provides 6.1 million measurements for 24,000 chemical compounds, allowing chemical engineers to accurately simulate systems (NIST 2017). About $20 billion in capital investment for plant design and maintenance is supported by these NIST data (NIST 2022b).

NIST’s Net-Zero Energy House provides a unique platform to evaluate new equipment and design approaches. Automated monitoring provides over 1.5 GB (gigabyte) of performance data per year, and these data have made a significant contribution to how architects and homebuilders design net-zero-energy homes (NIST 2022c).

While the development of policies and regulations to mitigate climate effects are outside of NIST’s mission, measurements are certain to play an important role in identifying and quantifying greenhouse gas emissions. Current work in developing stand-off measurement methods and positioning these measurements to provide traceable measurements for potential regulations of emissions, is a significant opportunity. More broadly, NIST work in building, wildfire, and windstorm modeling supports improvements in infrastructure resilience.

Safety

The NIST National Fire Research Laboratory houses experiments to understand fire behaviors and structural responses to fire. Measurements of full-scale structures provide technical data that inform building codes and fire safety. NIST computational tools predict fire growth and spread in commercial buildings and allow designers to develop lower-cost structures that meet fire performance standards. NIST’s fire dynamics simulator work was shown to provide a BCR of 75 in a 2022 assessment of this program (Lippiatt 2002).

The National Construction Safety Team Act (P.L. 107-231) mandated that NIST investigate the collapse of World Trade Center buildings 1 and 2 and the 47-story 7 World Trade Center. The NIST investigation—with inputs from 200 professionals and technical subject-matter experts including 85 NIST staff members—detailed the probable sequence of events leading to the initiation of collapse for each of these buildings. This resulted in 31 recommendations for improvements to building and fire codes, standards, and design practices. Measurements of the mechanical properties of steel from the World Trade Center buildings at normal and elevated temperatures led to the development and validation of performance criteria for fire resistive steel. The National Construction Safety Team is presently investigating the 2021 Surfside, Florida, condominium collapse.

NIST develops standards for the ballistic resistance of police body armor based on live-fire tests performed by engineers. Due to these specifications, no officers wearing this body armor have been killed by penetration or blunt trauma (NIST 2013). Involved in forensic work since the early 1900s, NIST also provides a standard bullet and cartridge case for forensics use (NIST 2009).

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³ NIST, 2015, “‘Measuring Stick’ Standard for Gene Sequencing Now Available from NIST,” updated October 18, 2018.

Communications, Electronics, and Photonics

NIST has worked in communication technologies since its establishment. The development of television closed captioning earned NIST an Emmy award in 1980. As a more high-tech example, NIST developed a miniaturized chip-scale atomic clock that has stability necessary for GPS receivers, unmanned vehicles, underwater sensor networks, and jamming systems to counter improvised explosive devices.

The wireless spectrum is finite, and its efficient use requires the improved measurement of interference, propagation, and channels at higher frequencies and bandwidths. NIST’s NextG Channel Model Alliance⁴ brings together researchers from over 78 stakeholder organizations to share experiment methodologies, measurement campaign results, and channel modeling data. Channel models are a critical part of wireless standards development and these efforts, combined with NIST measurement support, ensure that realistic channel models are used for next generation wireless systems.

NIST supports first responder communications through the Public Safety Communications Research program that brings together hundreds of communications vendors and first responders to support the development of communications technologies for public safety, including test bed measurements, and standards using NIST’s LTE (Long Term Evolution) test network.

NIST laser power and energy calibration services ensure accuracy and repeatability in applications ranging from laser treatment and surgery to laser welding and additive manufacturing, and fiberoptic communications. NIST has developed calorimeters to measure very high-power lasers for the U.S. military. An impact assessment in 2000 showed a BCR of 9 for this work (NIST 2000b).

Semiconductor industry requirements for improved measurement resolution have pushed toward smaller dimensions, and NIST has played a supporting role in the evolution of semiconductor technology and nanotechnology for decades. Renewed efforts to ensure the strategic supply of semiconductor electronics devices has led to congressional passage of the CHIPS for America Act as part of the FY 2021 National Defense Authorization Act (P.L. 116-283) that will entrust NIST with $52 billion in funding to expand capacity and capability.

Standards and Calibrations

NIST’s measurement science research efforts would have minimal impact if not translated in a manner useful to industry. NIST results are routinely disseminated through publications, but primary measurement standards and advanced capabilities are very sophisticated, requiring highly skilled personnel. These techniques cannot be economically replicated by the industry, government, or academic users who may benefit. To bridge this gap, NIST also provides a broad array of services to efficiently connect its measurement capability to customers and provide the traceability of measurements to national measurement standards.

In addition, NIST maintains and supplies over 1,300 different standard reference materials, with traceable and exceptionally well-characterized physical or chemical properties. Characterized as “truth in a bottle” by some, standard reference materials enable users to calibrate measurements on materials produced in their laboratories and compare their measured values with popular standard reference materials. These materials and processes form the basis of many industrial quality assurance programs and promote commerce through trust in the calibrated measurements.

The Importance of Research Facilities

To perform its mission, it is necessary for NIST to nurture a portfolio of precision measurement technologies that can be applied to national needs as required. The range supported by NIST is vast, and it needs to continue to improve in resolution, accuracy, and calculation of uncertainty as technology advances. NIST’s measurement competence has allowed it to provide leadership in emerging technology areas that are vital to national and economic security.

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⁴ For more information, see https://www.nist.gov/ctl/nextg-channel-model-alliance, accessed June 28, 2022.

Precision metrology is not performed in an office environment. It requires engineered spaces that need to meet varying, and sometimes very demanding, environments. Depending on the measurement, laboratories may require environmental controls for temperature, humidity, vibration, microphonics, and cleanliness. Some measurements may have more demanding requirements, necessitating laboratories with acoustic or electromagnetic shielding, controlled temperature gradients, well-conditioned electrical power, flawless electrical grounds, clean rooms, or biosafety laboratories.

As can be seen, laboratories are complicated, high-tech buildings that contain numerous systems that condition the environment to support sensitive equipment and safe work. Laboratories typically cost two to three times as much as offices to build, and two to four times as much to operate functionally and safely. Moreover, laboratories often contain exotic instruments or systems that are purpose-built to solve targeted challenges. Examples of unique NIST tools include:

• The Million Pounds-Force Deadweight Machine,⁵ the largest force calibration instrument in the world, can be used to calibrate force sensors for extremely large values such as the thrust of a rocket engine.
• The Kibble Watt Balance⁶ can measure mass derived from fundamental physical constants rather than basing mass measurements on a comparison to an artifact kept in a Paris vault. Measurements using this device were instrumental in the redefinition of the kilogram.
• The Configurable Robotic Millimeter-wave Antenna test facility⁷—the world’s first robotic arm for antenna measurement—enables the application of near-field scanning techniques to antenna technologies from 50-500 GHz and supports the measurement and characterization of very-high-frequency phased array and quasi-optical systems used in next-generation wireless systems.

In addition to the technical areas of NIST facilities, there is great attention paid to the softer, people spaces for concentration during analysis, thinking, and writing. Since many of the laboratories share both equipment studies and scientific staff, collaboration in conference rooms is important. The newest design development is establishing neighborhoods for increasing staff interactions and flexibility in the layout and conduct of laboratory programs. These new concepts also address congressional priorities. The value of this configuration of people and equipment is to increase synergies in analyzing data, drawing key conclusions, and solving complex problems.

Boulder Facility Successes

During site visits, the committee observed several examples of recent modifications to NIST facilities in Boulder, Colorado, that enabled extraordinary work.

Support of a Congressionally Mandated Research Focus

The CTL was established in 2014 in response to congressional directives that included an appropriation of approximately $10 million and the potential for an additional $300 million dependent on spectrum auction proceeds. The NIST campus had no space for this new program, apart from Building 3, a dilapidated structure that housed rarely used apparatus operated on very infrequent occasions due to the squalid conditions of the building. While this approach provided space for CTL, this required the preservation of several unnecessary interior and exterior walls, requiring some awkward and nonideal design choices, to ensure that the project could be classified a renovation.

The renovated space facilitated the installation of specialized anechoic and reverberation chambers that that form the basis of a new 5G Coexistence Testbed (NIST 2021). This test bed allows the measurement of end-to-end 5G performance, including new millimeter wave frequencies, as well as IEEE 802.11 WIFI bands and Internet of

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⁵ For more information, see https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2016/06/million-pound-deadweight-machine-officially-open-business, accessed June 28, 2022.

⁶ For more information, see https://www.nist.gov/si-redefinition/kilogram-kibble-balance, accessed June 28, 2022.

⁷ For more information, see https://www.nist.gov/ctl/configurable-robotic-millimeter-wave-antenna-cromma, accessed June 28, 2022.

Things characterization. The test bed features a carrier-grade implementation of communications signals, focusing on metrology for emerging 5G spectrum sharing, coexistence, and interference testing.

New Construction to Support Valuable New Measurement Techniques

High signal-to-noise X-ray spectrometry is usually done using free electron lasers that cost $1 billion, and there are no commercial tools for X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy with picosecond time resolution (NIST 2022c). The United States has only one hard X-ray free electron laser, located at the Stanford Linear Accelerator on the Stanford University Campus. This laser serves relatively few users compared to the large number of users doing picosecond resolution work at several synchrotrons around the country. In this laboratory in the Material Measurement Science Division, a tabletop X-ray system uses conventional lasers to provide picosecond resolution. The instrument uses a two-beam pump probe configuration and performs experimental runs of 100 hours or longer. This experiment could not be performed in any other building on the NIST Boulder campus as the exceptional temperature and vibration control provided in this new laboratory Building 81 (dedicated in 2012) is absolutely required for this work.

Increasing the accessibility of X-ray spectroscopy will enable research that can have substantial economic impacts. One application of X-ray spectroscopy is to improve the understanding of chemical catalysis processes. While the market for catalysts is about $35 billion worldwide, these create over $10 trillion in value; over 80 percent of all manufactured products, and approximately 90 percent of all industrial chemicals, use catalysts within the manufacturing process (Millholland 2021). As a result, even small improvements in the efficacy of catalysts promises substantial return.

Building Renovations That Support Breakthrough Science

Wing 3 is a newly renovated laboratory space in Building 1, a structure that was dedicated by President Eisenhower in the 1950s. The work in this laboratory is focused on quantum science that was previously located in the unrenovated Wing 1. As an example of the world-class⁸ research enabled by this renovation, a demonstration of quantum entanglement of microresonators was awarded the Physics World 2021 Breakthrough of the Year prize. Researchers assert this demonstration could never have been done in their original laboratory. If their efforts had begun in a laboratory renovated to Wing 3 building standards, they state that they would have achieved this groundbreaking result 18 months earlier.

The committee’s tours and analysis showed that these success stories were uncommon. As the next chapter describes, the increasing demands of precision measurement have outstripped the level of facility performance required, and many NIST laboratory facilities are not fit for purpose. While this chapter describes the extraordinary value that NIST has provided to the nation, it is unlikely that this track record of excellence can continue within deteriorating NIST facilities.

REFERENCES

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⁸ This report uses “world-class” in the sense of being among the best in the world.