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Princeton and MIT Physicists Receive NIST Grants
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Princeton and MIT Physicists Receive NIST Grants
The winners of the fiscal year 1999 NIST Precision Measurement Grants are a researcher who will carry out a project that could lead to dramatic improvements in the accuracy of mass spectrometry and a researcher who will carry out a project that looks at the echoes of the earliest formation of matter.
One grant goes to David Pritchard, physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He will conduct cyclotron frequency measurements on ions that could achieve a 100-fold improvement in the accuracy of atomic mass measurements.
MIT has developed the world's most accurate mass spectrometer capable of measuring the atomic mass of atoms to one part in 10 billion. Pritchard proposes to simultaneously measure the cyclotron frequencies of two different ions in order to improve the values of several fundamental constants. For example, his mass measurements will allow the determination of the fine-structure constant from the molar Planck constant, the product of Planck's constant and Avogadro's number. He will improve the measured atomic masses of fundamental particles such as the proton, deuteron and neutron and of selected atoms such as carbon-13 and nitrogen-15 for improved gamma ray standards.
Suzanne Staggs, assistant professor of physics at Princeton University, will receive the other FY 1999 Precision Measurement Grant to attempt to make the first-ever detection of polarization in the cosmic microwave background. Essentially an echo of the earliest formation of matter, the cosmic microwave background holds clues as to the shape, content and future of our universe. Staggs' measurements will help reveal new fundamental details about the universe's geometry, large-scale structure, energetics and particle content.
Rather than examining slight temperature variations in the cosmic microwave background, Staggs will look for spatial variations in the polarization of photons in it. The experimental setup will include a broadband correlation receiver, which will collect data from the roof of the Princeton Physics Building in winter. NIST awards Precision Measurement Grants to promote fundamental research in measurement science in U.S. colleges and universities. Each $50,000 grant is awarded for one year and may be renewed at $50,000 per year for two additional years at the discretion of NIST.
For more information on the Precision Measurement Grants, contact Barry N. Taylor, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8401, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-8401, (301) 975-4220, or go to the World Wide Web site at http://physics.nist.gov/ResOpp/grants/grants.html.
Media Contact:
Linda Joy, (301) 975-4403
Second SRM for Optical Fiber Metrology Available
Scientists in NIST's Optoelectronics Division have developed a second Standard Reference Material to assist the optical fiber communications industry with wavelength division multiplexed optical fiber communication systems.
In a WDM system, many wavelength channels are sent down the same fiber, thereby increasing the bandwidth of the system by the number of channels. If one channel's wavelength were to shift, cross-talk could occur between it and a neighboring channel. Wavelength references are needed in the 1,500 nanometer region to calibrate the optical instruments used to evaluate system components and measure the channels' wavelengths.
NIST has produced two SRMs with optical fiber coupled cells containing gases, which have accurately measured absorption lines in the 1,500 nanometer region. The first, SRM no. 2517, is based on the fundamental absorptions of light by acetylene. The newest SRM, no. 2519, utilizes an absorption cell containing a small quantity of hydrogen cyanide and is intended for use in calibrating the wavelength scale of wavelength measuring equipment in the spectral region from 1,528 to 1,563 nanometers.
To obtain more information on SRMs 2517 and 2519, contact Sarah Gilbert, MS 815.03, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80303-3337, (303) 497-3120. To order, contact the SRM Program, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 2321, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-2321, (301) 975-6776, fax: (301) 948-3730.
Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246
New Book Confronts Issues Challenging Semiconductor Industry
A wide range of issues important to the U.S. semiconductor industry--and a strategy to correct what some experts see as a potentially dangerous trend of declining long-term basic research and development--are reported in a volume of scientific and engineering papers now available.
The book, Characterization and Metrology for ULSI Technology, is published by the American Institute of Physics and was edited by six scientists led by Dave Seiler, chief of the Semiconductor Electronics Division in NIST's Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory.
"What's at stake is American jobs and the preeminence of the U.S. semiconductor and electronics industry, which is, in a broad sense, the single largest employer in the nation," said Seiler. "People are not doing the basic research that will be needed 15 to 20 years from now."
The papers specifically address issues concerning how to measure and understand the materials and technologies involving "ultra large scale integration," or the production of larger and larger circuits that contain more and more densely packed electronic components. Among the issues discussed in the papers is the concept of meeting future R&D needs by forming partnerships among industry, universities and government agencies. The strategy of forming consortia is referred to as a "cross-functional approach" to the problem.
To order Characterization and Metrology for ULSI Technology, contact Springer-Verlag New York Inc. at (800) 777-4643. NIST's Seiler may be contacted at (301) 975-2054.
Media Contact:
Emil Venere, (301) 975-5745
Reach NIST Staff More Efficiently with Zip+4
Starting today, NIST's Gaithersburg, Md., headquarters has a new mail system that utilizes the U.S. Postal Service's ZIP+4 zip code.
Addresses for NIST staff now include "100 Bureau Drive" and a stop number that corresponds to the last four digits of the ZIP+4 code. For example, a mailing to the editor of NIST Update should read as follows:
MICHAEL E. NEWMAN
NIST
100 BUREAU DR STOP 3460
GAITHERSBURG MD 20899-3460Addresses should be all in capital letters and use no punctuation. For the stop and ZIP+4 for a specific employee, go to http://www.nist.gov and click on "NIST Staff" for the online phonebook. Mailing addresses for NIST staff in Boulder, Colo., remain unchanged.
Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025
New Group Turns the First Page on E-book Standards
The Open Electronic Book Standards Committee recently launched its effort to develop voluntary standards for the emerging electronic book industry. The committee, which includes book publishers and electronics executives, met during Electronic Book '98, an October 1998 workshop co-sponsored by NIST and the Video Electronics Standards Association. The workshop brought together librarians, publishers, software and hardware developers, information technology engineers and others with an interest in electronic books.
E-books are hybrid products that combine features found in books and computers. Manufacturers hope to take advantage of advances in fields such as video display technology and high capacity storage media (such as digital video display or semiconductor memory) to produce the next generation of easy-to-use, portable, battery-powered E-books.
Members of the OEBSC would like to develop standards that would support the growth of the industry within a year. Along with NIST representatives, the group features members from E-book manufacturers such as EveryBook Inc., Librius Inc., Nuvomedia and Softbook Press. Other participants of note include Microsoft Corp., Random House and the Association of American Publishers.
A major goal of the OEBSC is to develop voluntary standards for electronic content. Another goal is to ensure "interoperability" among the different electronic books coming on the market. This interoperability would allow consumers to buy a machine from one manufacturer and purchase the actual text of a book from multiple sources.
For more information, contact Victor McCrary, NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Stop 8951, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-8951, (301) 975-4321.
Media Contact:
Philip Bulman, (301) 975-5661
New Service Checks Time Software's Y2K Compatibility
NIST's Time and Frequency Division has established a service to assist users in testing how well their time-setting software will handle dates after Jan. 1, 2000. The year 2000 problem, or Y2K, refers to the failure of a computer program or system because the "00" year designation is mistaken for "1900."
The service sends the exact time to any computer that requests it, but transmits dates that are exactly two years in the future. For example, the message transmitted at 14:37:26 Coordinate Time Universal (known as UTC) on Nov. 1, 1998, had a time of 14:37:26 UTC on Nov. 1, 2000. The service supports all common digital formats. The time of day will be correct and will be directly traceable to the NIST atomic clock. The service will run until the end of 1999. Users with time-setting software on their computers that receives digital time messages over the Internet can access this test facility by changing the address in the software to connect to "y2k-test.timefreq.bldrdoc.gov" (IP address 132.163.135.136). Users of NIST's Automated Computer Time Service modem dial-up service can test their systems by dialing (303) 554-7760.
Windows 3.x/95/98 software modified to allow selecting the NIST Y2K test time-server is available free of charge on the World Wide Web at http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/service/nts.htm.
This facility is for testing only, and users should be careful about connecting operational systems to these servers. NIST will not be responsible for damage to systems that cannot properly handle dates in the year 2000 and beyond.
The client and server software were developed as part of a joint project between NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder through JILA, a joint institute operated by the two organizations. The work at JILA was supported in part by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
Media Contact:
Collier Smith (Boulder), (303) 497-3198
U.S.
Department of Commerce
Technology Administration
National Institute of Standards and Technology
Editor: Michael Newman
HTML conversion: Crissy Wines
Last updated: November
9, 1998
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