Marla Dowell Receives 2009 Arthur S. Flemming Award

Marla Dowell, Group Leader of the Sources and Detector Group, was recognized for her sustained exceptional leadership as a supervisory physicist of a world-leading laser metrology program. Dr. Dowell leads the most comprehensive program in laser metrology of any national measurement institute in the world. Her excellent people management skills and her outstanding breadth of technical expertise have transformed NIST's national measurement program in laser metrology and standards into an extremely effective, customer focused provider of world-leading measurement services. Dr. Dowell's team has accelerated development of a new class of test equipment, provided measurement traceability to the semiconductor manufacturing industry with best-in-the-world accuracy for ultraviolet laser instruments, and enabled high power laser calibrations for critical US defense programs with unique detector designs and coatings, among other accomplishments. Under her leadership her team's success has improved greatly in all areas. In addition, Dr. Dowell serves the technical and wider communities in improvement of laser safety, documentary standards, the work environment, as well as the education of a future generation of scientists and engineers.