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Kammer Takes Office as NIST Director
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Administration
Kammer Takes Office as NIST Director
R aymond Kammer, President Clinton's choice to become the 11th director of NIST, was sworn into office on Nov. 12, 1997, by Commerce Secretary William Daley.
Kammer, 50, was nominated on Sept. 4, 1997, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on Nov. 9, 1997. He succeeds Arati Prabhakar, who resigned in March to join the private sector.
The new NIST director had been the agency's deputy director from 1980 to 1991 and from 1993 to 1997. From January 1996 to September 1997, Kammer served on an acting basis as chief financial officer, assistant secretary for administration and chief information officer for the Department of Commerce. From 1991 to 1993, he was deputy under secretary of commerce for oceans and atmosphere, the chief operating officer of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Kammer began his career with Commerce in 1969 as a program analyst.
Media Contact:
Michael Newman (301) 975-3025
Medicine
NIST Radiopharmaceuticals: Good for Your Health ... and Wallet
A new economic study finds significant social benefit and a very favorable benefit/cost ratio for NIST-produced radiopharmaceutical standards. Such standards help medical clinics deliver accurate doses of radioactive drugs for treating or diagnosing disease. The study, compiled by University of North Carolina professor Albert Link for the NIST Ionizing Radiation Division, found a benefit-to-cost ratio of 97-to-1 for NIST radiopharmaceutical standards.
Using conservative assumptions and economic data since 1990, Link estimated that the NIST radiopharmaceutical program has cost taxpayers $2.4 million and produced benefits worth $236.2 million. The benefits represent money saved by patients and drug manufacturers. NIST radiopharmaceutical standards save patients money by eliminating the need to repeat tests and treatments. Without NIST radiopharmaceutical standards, patients would have to repeat 1 percent of diagnostic procedures and 3 percent of therapeutic procedures due to decreased accuracy in radioactive drug dosages. Patients receive the bulk of the benefits by not having to pay for repeated testing or treatment.
Manufacturers also save money by not having to develop standards and resolve measurement disputes themselves. "This research, in the opinion of manufacturers and in the opinion of medical experts today, has been invaluable," according to the study, Economic Evaluation of Radiopharmaceutical Research at NIST.
For a single copy of the study, send a self-addressed mailing label to Denise Herbert, A1000 Administration Bldg., NIST, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-0001, or fax your request to (301) 216-0529.
Media Contact:
Linda Joy (301) 975-4403
Fire Safety
Tests Show Foam Protects Homes in Fire Storm Path
During a wildland or urban fire storm, people often try to save their homes by constantly spraying them with water. Sometimes the attempt works. Sometimes it costs them their lives. NIST Fire Safety Division researchers hope that a better--and less risky--solution is the application of water-based foam sprays or gels to home exteriors.
In a recent experiment, the NIST researchers demonstrated that a protein-based compressed air foam can protect building exteriors from ignition. They built two wooden, L-shaped frame walls and covered both with exterior vinyl siding. One hour before ignition, the corner of one wall was treated with the protective foam, also called a durable agent. The second wall's corner received no treatment. Both corners were exposed to a 50 kilowatt fire for 10 minutes.
Within three minutes of ignition, the untreated corner had flames extending into the eaves and roof area. After 10 minutes of fire exposure, the treated corner had received only minor damage. The fire did not spread on the treated corner.
The experiment demonstrates that applying durable agents to combustible exterior siding reduces the likelihood of ignition and flame spread. The researchers now intend to look at the effectiveness of foam and other durable agents under hot, dry and windy conditions.
For technical information, contact Daniel Madrzykowski, A345 Polymer Bldg., NIST, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-0001, (301) 975-6677.
Media Contact:
John Blair (301) 975-4261
Manufacturing
NIST Invention Has 'Polish'
Evaluating the capabilities of a versatile, NIST-invented technology for lapping and polishing high-precision parts will be one of the initial tasks of the University of Delaware's Center for Nanomachined Surfaces. Rodel Inc.,a major supplier of surface finishing products, recently licensed NIST's "rapidly renewable lap," or RRL. The company will make the technology available to the new center. There, researchers from Rodel, the University of Delaware, NIST and six other organizations are teaming up to improve methods for polishing photomasks the intricately stenciled quartz plates used to print ever finer and ever more complex circuit patterns on computer chips.
The RRL consists of a porous ceramic form, which imparts its shape and texture to a vacuum-applied, thin film that carries abrasive particles. Ceramic substrate, overlying thin film and abrasive can be tailored to a particular task or workpiece, such as a photomask, silicon wafer or magnetic disk. In tests, the system removed material from the surface of glass, silicon, copper and other workpieces at significantly better-than-average rates, while reliably achieving high-quality surfaces, says Chris Evans, the NIST precision engineer who led the development effort. Rodel engineer David Roderick was a key technical contributor.
Potential advantages over current lapping and polishing techniques are the new technology's flexibility and adaptability. Unlike conventional tools, the same system can be used to perform a variety of finishing jobs.
For technical information, contact Chris Evans, A117 Metrology Bldg., NIST, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-0001, (301) 975-3484.
Media Contact:
Mark Bello (301) 975-3776
Standards
February Workshop Seeks Improved Trade with China
With a quarter of the world's population within its borders, China offers an extremely attractive market for U.S. manufacturers. However, differences between and redundancies in U.S. and Chinese conformity assessment (testing, certification and inspection of product safety and quality) standards present formidable barriers to trade with the Far East giant.
To remove these obstacles and promote standards-related cooperative efforts, the U.S. Department of Commerce, China's Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, and other Chinese agencies formed the U.S.-China Joint Commission on Commerce and Trade. One of its goals is to hold workshops where representatives from U.S. industry can learn firsthand about Chinese product safety and quality standards from Chinese government regulatory and standards officials. The forums also will provide opportunities to foster harmonization of standards between the two nations.
For manufacturers of potential export products who need to know about Chinese product standards for electrical devices and boilers/pressure vessels, two Commerce Department agencies NIST and the International Trade Administration are co-sponsoring a Feb. 17-18, 1998, workshop at the department's headquarters in Washington, D.C. Secretary of Commerce William Daley has been invited to open the workshop. Expected to attend are senior management officials from a number of Chinese standards and regulatory agencies, including the Ministry of Labor's Safety Quality Licensing Office, the State Administration for Import and Export Commodity Inspection, and the China Commission for Conformity Certification of Electrical Equipment. Also expected to participate are corresponding U.S. organizations such as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Underwriters Laboratories Inc.
For registration information, contact Lori Phillips, (301) 975-3881, or check the WWW at http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/confpage/980217.htm. For information on the conference, contact Stanley I. Warshaw, (301) 975-4193 or (20 2) 482-6418, or Lauren Brosler, (202) 482-4431.
Media Contact:
Michael Newman (301) 975-3025
Materials
Predicting the Texture of Sheet Metals by EMATs
Researchers at NIST's Materials Reliability Division have pioneered the concept of using ultrasound via electromagnetic acoustic transducers (or EMATs) to measure the preferred crystalline orientation, known as texture, in sheet metal. A new technical paper from these researchers describes how EMAT techniques can be used to monitor and control the development of a desired texture in the rolling process for copper, brass and bronze sheet-metal products.
According to the paper, a particular texture can be achieved through an efficient choice of rolling reductions and annealing steps. "Definition of the texture needed to achieve a particularly desirable set of properties in the final product must be left as a proprietary goal for each manufacturer," the researchers state.
Detailed in the paper are the theoretical foundations, experimental techniques, sample preparation and results achieved in the NIST lab. Working with George A. Alers and Pat Purtscher of NIST were John F. Breedis and Frank N. Mandigo of the Olin Corp., New Haven, Conn.
For a copy of paper no. 44-97, contact Sarabeth Harris, MC 104, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3328, (303) 497-3237.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder) (303) 497-3246
U.S. Department of Commerce
Technology Administration
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Editor: Michael Newman
HTML conversion: Crissy Wines
Last updated: February 18, 1998
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