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An Assessment of the Material Measurement Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology Fiscal Year 2023 (2023) / Chapter Skim
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2 Overview of the Material Measurement Laboratory
Pages 11-15

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From page 11...
... MML describes itself as serving as "the Nation's primary resource for advancing measurements essential to the chemical, biological, and materials sciences and related engineering disciplines" to "bring focus to the development of exceptional measurement science expertise and capabilities, reference products and standards, and data science and data dissemination capabilities." The work of MML is overall subsumed under three scientific and technical goals: (1) measurement science excellence, (2)
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From page 12...
... On the Gaithersburg campus, in 2022, aging infrastructure led to serious flooding of MML research laboratories, with resultant loss of equipment and lost time. In addition, neither the Gaithersburg nor the Boulder facilities have the humidity and temperature control needed for many state-of-the-art measurements, which seriously limits output; and laboratory exhaust systems are inadequate for the performance of modern materials chemistry related processes.
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From page 13...
... Critically, they also represent safety issues. With an abundance of electronic equipment, floods can easily lead to sparks that can in turn initiate fires; inadequate exhaust will lead to contaminated laboratory air that can negatively impact research product quality and in the long term can impact the health of research staff.
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From page 14...
... More timely support from human resources would ease the frustrations of existing staff whose progress is hampered by vacancies in administrative support, hiring of postdoctoral fellows, or staffing of existing mission areas. Over the course of the discussions with postdocs and limited term employees, it became clear that pandemic restrictions limited onboarding and other processes that contribute to a cohesive work culture.
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From page 15...
... The virtual machine approach may be a practice that could be useful throughout MML as it balances computational infrastructure needs with budgetary constraints. Key Recommendation 5: To the extent possible, the Material Measurement Laboratory should launch an initiative to unify all computational systems, data formats, and data transmission protocols into a single, uniform platform for more efficient and effective data curation, storage, processing, transmission, and security management.
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Key Terms

  • material measurement
  • measurement laboratory
  • data science
  • mml research
  • data infrastructure

  • key recommendation
  • standard reference
  • materials measurement
  • reference materials
  • virtual machine

  • biomolecular measurement
  • measurement equipment
  • nist research
  • materials sciences
  • technical assessment

  • technical goals
  • technical work
  • curates standard
  • machine approach
  • protection programs

  • voluntary protection
  • capital facility
  • infrastructure issues
  • science expertise
  • facilities issues

  • occupational safety
  • aging computer
  • provides measurement
  • nist measurement
  • measurement division


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