Marla Dowell Receives 2012 Allen V. Astin Award

Dr. Marla L. Dowell is recognized for her visionary leadership of the most comprehensive laser metrology program in the world with strong emphases on both customer service and research outcomes. In ten years, Dr. Dowell has transformed the NIST laser metrology program from primarily a calibration services group into an extremely successful research and development organization with both world-leading measurement services and measurement science research supporting a diverse range of customers – from Fortune 10 to high-tech small businesses, as well as U.S. and foreign government agencies. She has improved nearly every measure of success of the services her Group provides, bringing turn-around time to under 20 days and on-time completion rates to over 95 %. The break-through science that her group undertakes is delivering world-class accuracy for laser power and waveform measurements at a fraction of the previous cost.