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Memorial Tributes Volume 20 (2016) / Chapter Skim
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JOHN A. SIMPSON
Pages 294-299

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From page 295...
... LYONS JOHN AROL SIMPSON, former director of the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory at the National Institute of Stan ­ dards and Technology (NIST) , died December 6, 2011, in Falls Church, Virginia.
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From page 296...
... These experiments supported the theoretical work of Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee at Columbia University that earned them the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1957. Later work by Russell Young, also a metrologist at the Bureau, laid the foundation for the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physics to Gerd Binnig and Heinrich Rohrer for the scanning tunneling microscope.
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From page 297...
... Simpson was named the first director of the Center for Manufacturing Engineering and Process Technology, a group that included the mechanical engineering program from his earlier division and ­chemical engineering from other parts of the bureau. There was not enough compatibility between the mechanical and chemical pieces and the new center was divided in two: the Center for Chemical Engineering and the Center for Manufacturing Engineering (CME, later the Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory)
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From page 298...
... To accomplish this required a software control architecture and various standards for describing material properties and for enabling interfaces between disparate machines with their own proprietary software. The control architecture, developed by James Albus, was based on an earlier model of the human ­cerebellum.
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From page 299...
... In this way, Simpson's manufacturing automation program turned NBS outward, offering full-blown integrated automated process technology to US industry. This in turn led to the reauthorization of NBS as NIST, calling for more emphasis on working with US industry in support of the national economy.
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Key Terms

  • control architecture
  • automated manufacturing
  • manufacturing engineering
  • measuring machines
  • research facility

  • coordinate measuring
  • manufacturing research
  • engineering laboratory
  • process technology
  • nobel prize

  • electron physics
  • machine tools
  • division chief
  • physics section
  • delivering services

  • thereby enabling
  • included discoveries
  • detailed history
  • james albus
  • attended lehigh

  • orbitals extending
  • disparate machines
  • measurements advanced
  • john arol
  • guest workers

  • tunneling microscope
  • oral history
  • nist technology
  • colleagues adapted
  • section led


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