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Curt Barker is a guest researcher at NIST, specializing in cybersecurity. Previously Curt was Associate Director and Chief Cybersecurity Advisor for NIST‘s Information Technology Laboratory, where he was directly responsible for planning, directing, and implementing the NIST cybersecurity program. Curt loves to travel and has achieved permanent status as a member of the United Million Miler club.

Don Hillger became USMA President in 2015. His career, as a meteorologist specializing in weather satellite applications, began in the 1970s. He has been a NOAA meteorologist for nearly 30 years, stationed at the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere at Colorado State University. Don has also been a topical philatelist for many years, with numerous publications on the topics of satellites and weather on postage stamps, as well as the metric system and amateur radio.

Rodney Petersen is the director of the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Education (NICE) at NIST. He worked previously as the managing director of the EDUCAUSE Washington Office and director of IT Policy and Planning at the University of Maryland. When he is not evangelizing for increasing the cybersecurity talent pipeline, he volunteers as basketball commissioner for Savage Boys & Girls Club and spends time with his wife as #emptynestsurvivors.

Mike Garcia is, in no particular order, former director of NIST's Trusted Identities Group, a proud Buckeye, and an advocate of the Oxford comma. When he's not remodeling his house or being bossed around by his cat, Mike's fighting the good fight to foster an identity ecosystem in which individuals and organizations utilize secure, efficient, easy-to-use, and interoperable identity solutions to access online services in a manner that promotes confidence, privacy, choice, and innovation. He is a Ph.D. economist, Federal 100 award-winning cybersecurity expert, and winner of an intraoffice beard-growing competition.

Dominic Sims has served as the Chief Operating Officer of the International Code Council since October 2006. Sims was CEO of the Southern Building Code Congress International (SBCCI), an International Code Council legacy organization, and helped lead the consolidation of the three model code organizations. He holds several professional certifications with the Code Council and the states of Florida and Ohio. Prior to joining the Code Council and SBCCI, Sims was Executive Director of the Palm Beach County, Florida, Planning, Zoning and Building Department. He has served on numerous committees, including as Vice Chairman of the Florida Governor’s Building Code Study Commission and was Vice Mayor of Jupiter, Florida.

Yuri Ralchenko graduated from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in Russia with a degree in theoretical physics. His career journey took him to the Institute of Spectroscopy of the Russian Academy of Sciences, then the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel, and finally, to NIST. While Yuri’s scientific interests are primarily in atomic physics for plasmas, he is also captivated by history, astronomy, and art.

An electronics engineer, Kate Remley joined NIST in 1999. Since 2003, she has been the leader of the Metrology for Wireless Systems Project, which develops ways to measure complex telecommunication signals used by industry, public-safety workers, and the government. Remley's research and contributions to standards development improve the reliability and interactivity of wireless communications, which helps save lives in emergencies, and also helps the wireless industry develop better and more economical products.

Jim Warren got his Ph.D. in physics at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and came to NIST in 1992 as an NRC postdoctoral fellow. His researched focused on modeling and simulation of crystal growth, including creating some of the first computer-generated realizations of alloy dendrites (ice dendrites are called snowflakes). In 2010 he helped craft the white paper that launched the Materials Genome Initiative, and since then has been coordinating the national effort while managing the program. Jim has 2nd-degree black belt in Taekwondo, as well as a lot of experience in improvisational theater, and has appeared on stage with very famous jugglers. He also has ADHD and … squirrel!

Laura Karns teaches middle school science for Montgomery County Public Schools in Germantown, Maryland. She earned both her undergraduate and graduate at Salisbury University. When she is not working with her students, Laura spends her free time hiking with her dog and planning her wedding with her fiancée.

Jennifer Huergo has been writing about science and technology for more than 20 years. That work has allowed her to try on body armor, take the helm of an airship (briefly), and work with some of the world’s best scientists and engineers. She enjoys helping researchers tell their stories and while she is comfortable with meters and kilometers, she admits the Celsius scale sometimes leaves her wondering if she needs a jacket or not.

Jacqueline Mann has over 19 years of inorganic elemental and isotopic analysis experience at NIST, with 16 of those years involving the certification of Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) and Reference Materials (RMs). Currently, she is the main point of contact at NIST for SRMs to support nuclear forensics. Being from the New York metropolitan area, Jackie stands “on line,” not “in line,” though she would prefer not to do either.

Xiaoyu Alan Zheng is a mechanical engineer in the NIST Surface and Nanostructure Metrology Group. His research is focused on objective measurements and analysis of 2-D/3-D ballistics toolmarks. He is currently a member of the Subcommittee on Firearms & Toolmarks in the NIST OSAC as well as a technical adviser for AFTE.

Shahana Khurshid is an NRC RAP fellow in the Indoor Air Quality and Ventilation group at NIST. She received her B.S. in Environmental Engineering from MIT, M.S. in Biomedical Engineering and Ph.D. in Environmental Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. She was an avid cat lover growing up in Karachi, Pakistan, and now enjoys watching her children ‘kitten’ around with each other.

Dan Sawyer is the leader of and a mechanical engineer in NIST's Dimensional Metrology group. In his spare time, Dan enjoys building model airplanes and playing the piano.

Steven Mates has a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Penn State University and has been at NIST since 1999. He currently works in high-speed experimental mechanics, but also has a background in fluid mechanics, fluid atomization and metals processing. When not in the lab, he loves to be active, with tennis and P90X training currently topping the activity list.

Mattie just completed her sophomore year at George Washington University, where she is pursuing a degree in mechanical engineering. Before becoming a NIST SURF student, she researched the kinematics of sea lion flippers, fabricating waveguides and grating couplers, and additive manufacturing of semiconductor materials. Mattie loves the television show “Parks and Recreation,” and it’s her dream to someday get waffles with Amy Poehler.

Laura Ost writes about NIST research in Boulder, Colo., covering topics such as atomic clocks, quantum computing and communications, frequency combs, ultracold atoms and molecules, and advanced materials. She also dabbles in NIST history and artifacts. Her finds include an audio recording of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s speech at the 1954 dedication of NIST’s Boulder campus.

Jarred graduated from Penn State in 2015 with a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering, where he studied the thermal and mechanical response of metal parts during additive manufacturing processing. Before grad school, he worked as a contractor with NIST researching metal cutting processes; specifically how to measure the process to provide more accurate data to validate model predictions. Outside of NIST, Jarred gets his hands greasy repairing and restoring sports cars … sometimes successfully.

Samuel L. Manzello is a mechanical engineer in NIST’s Fire Research Division. Sam is fortunate to have conducted thousands of experiments, from floating onboard NASA’s Vomit Comet as part of his Ph.D. thesis on microgravity droplet combustion, to producing soot in combustion reactors to image its nanostructure using transmission electron microscopy, to harnessing the Dragon using large wind tunnels in Japan, just to name a few.

Jennifer Lynch has a Ph.D. in marine environmental toxicology from Duke University and has worked for the NIST Chemical Sciences Division for 16 years. She is also a research faculty member at Hawaii Pacific University and co-director of their Center for Marine Debris Research. Her research has spanned topics including developing methods to measure persistent organic pollutants in Standard Reference Materials, leading sea turtle tissue collections for the NIST Environmental Specimen Bank for pollutants and health monitoring, and identifying quantities and polymer composition of plastic marine debris. In her free time, she enjoys boating, stand-up paddling, and boogie boarding with her family. 

Dana Leaman currently serves as the chief of NIST’s National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP). She has been a member of the accreditation community since 2000. When she isn’t traveling the world representing NVLAP, she can usually be found running the streets of Frederick, Maryland, with the local running club.

James K. Olthoff is NIST’s first chief metrologist and serves as the primary representative both nationally and internationally of NIST’s role as the national metrology institute of the United States. He works with NIST leadership to ensure that NIST’s core measurement capabilities remain among the best in the world. Dr. Olthoff has served in many leadership positions at NIST including the associate director for laboratory programs and acting NIST director. He received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Maryland and did postdoctoral research at The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine before coming to NIST almost 40 years ago. 

Marc Levitan currently serves as Acting Director for the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program and leads windstorm and coastal inundation R&D at NIST. His latest run-in with a tornado occurred on Dec. 26, 2015. He and 14 family members spent the better part of an hour crowded into a ½ bath and small piece of adjacent hallway at his parents’ house in North Dallas while a 9 mile long and 1/3 mile wide EF-4 tornado killed 10 people, injured 468, and  destroyed several hundred homes and businesses nearby.

Cuong Nguyen joined NIST in 2010 and leads the Smart Grid Testing and Certification Project in the Smart Grid and Cyber-Physical Systems Program Office. He works with industry to support standards-based interoperability test programs to help accelerate smart grid deployments, and he also manages the NIST Smart Grid Advisory Committee. He is an avid pool player but these days, he spends his weekends riding miniature trains with his son.

Jon R. Pratt is the Chief of the Quantum Measurements Division, home to both the Mass and Force and Fundamental Electrical Measurements groups that are working to redefine the kilogram. When Jon isn’t managing the affairs of the division, he enjoys playing guitar and writing the occasional song. He provided the soundtrack to the Do-It-Yourself Watt Balance video.