Blog Search

As a cognitive scientist in the Visualization and Usability Group at NIST, Brian Stanton investigates usability and security issues ranging from password rules and analysis to privacy concerns. Brian has also worked on biometric projects for the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI's Hostage Rescue Team, and with latent fingerprint examiners. Brian feels strongly about good design communicating function. He doesn't want others to suffer the embarrassment of asking how to start a keyless car like he did on his last business trip. Thanks rental car guy!

Scott Jackson joined NIST in 2014 and currently serves as the leader of the recently created Complex Microbial Systems group. When he isn’t immersed in his studies of gut bacteria, Scott is usually geeking out on various techie hobbies and riding his mountain bike off-road and around Baltimore City’s Inner Harbor.

Jennifer Marshall is a program manager in the NIST Standards Coordination Office (SCO) and has been “chasing” ambulances (aka leading this effort) since 2010. She has managed the development of homeland security and public safety standards projects and has developed research and technology plans for nearly 15 years. In her spare time, she is often found picking up or tripping over her children’s toy ambulances.

Richard S. Gates is a chemical engineer and leader of the NIST Nanomechanical Properties Group. During his 37+ years at NIST, he has enjoyed working on a variety of interesting and challenging projects from recycled oil, boundary lubrication, tribochemistry, hard disk lubrication, and microfabrication, to atomic force microscopy measurements and standards. He grew up in the Bahamas and traded in coconut oil and conch fritters for lubricating oil and Maryland crab cakes to pursue his passion for science at NIST.

Danny Shechtman was awarded the 2011 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of quasicrystals, which he made in 1982 while working as a guest researcher at NIST. He is the Philip Tobias Professor of Materials Science at the Technion — Israel Institute of Technology, a professor of materials science at Iowa State University, and an associate of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory.

Biologist Becky Steffen has been researching forensic DNA analysis as part of NIST's Applied Genetics Group for the past 14 years. When she’s not doing her part to fight crime, she’s a devoted, diehard DC sports fan (Caps, Nats, Skins, Wizards, DC United) who sticks with her teams through thick and thin, good or bad. Come on, DC!!!

Edwin "Ted" Heilweil is committed to conserving energy and water at home and work and recycles everything he can. His wife is always on his case because he never throws anything away and recycles all bottles, cans, plastic, etc. He still uses old 1980s DOS computers at NIST and continues to repair and use laser equipment purchased at the beginning of his career. Besides fixing anything broken (his grandpa started that), singing and constantly listening to music, his main hobby is maintaining old cars — he still drives his 1982 Datsun-Nissan hatchback from graduate school and keeps four other cars on the road (at 628,000 total miles). The newest is a 2011 Toyota Prius hybrid (58 mpg), and none have ever been to a mechanic for repair!

After two postdoctoral fellowships, Tara M. Lovestead began her career at as a staff research scientist at NIST in 2011. The author of over 40 scientific publications, Tara’s current research interests include alternative fuels, energetic materials, and forensic applications of analytical chemistry. When she’s not in the lab, she enjoys trail running, rock climbing and camping with her husband, son, daughter and dog.

Adam Creuziger is a materials research engineer in the Materials Science and Engineering Division at NIST. He joined NIST as a National Research Council (NRC) research associate starting in 2008 and has been a staff member at NIST since 2012. In 2013, Adam was honored as a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers awardee. Before coming to NIST, Adam graduated with a bachelor of aerospace engineering and mechanics degree from the University of Minnesota and a master of science and Ph.D. in engineering mechanics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Sokwoo Rhee was associate director of the Cyber-Physical Systems Program at NIST from 2014 to 2021. He led the Global City Teams Challenge (GCTC), which aims to create a replicable and scalable model for collaborative incubation and deployment of Internet of Things (IoT) and Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) solutions to improve the quality of life in smart cities around the world. He previously served as a Presidential Innovation Fellow on CPS, a program by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He loves working with the best minds across the globe to make the world a better place for future generations.

Richard Wilkinson is a writer-editor in the NIST public affairs office, with responsibility for internal communications to NIST’s staff and associates via NIST’s internal website. In his spare time, he loves backpacking, cross-country skiing, and reading history and classic imaginative literature.

Katie Rapp is a communications specialist with NIST's Manufacturing Extension Partnership where she helps NIST MEP staff use plain language so their readers can understand what they write the first time they read it. Before that, she was a librarian at the NIST Research Library where she learned and wrote about many cool NIST history stories.

Sandy Ressler has been at NIST for nearly 40 years. (Yes, he’s old.) Following a short few years at Bell Labs, during which it was broken up (not due to Sandy’s work), Sandy has been doing computer graphics of various sorts at NIST. He is involved with 3D standards for the web and a variety of virtual reality technologies. He’s the co-author of the now classic Life with UNIX and the virtually unknown Art of Electronic Publishing. He holds an M.F.A. in visual arts (computer graphics), which continues to confuse management. In his off time, he loves to chase his grandkids.

Carol Hockert is the former chief of the Office of Weights and Measures at NIST, which provides technical expertise, training, international perspective and representation, and oversight to the U.S. legal metrology infrastructure. She also serves as the executive secretary for the National Conference on Weights and Measures. When she’s not busy juggling her professional responsibilities, Carol devotes time to managing the family foundation.

Diane Lee is a physical scientist in the NIST Office of Weights and Measures. She participates on national and international technical committees for measuring devices and develops requirements, test procedures, and training materials for measuring devices to promote fair transactions in the U.S. commercial market. During her spare time she spends time with family and co-chairs a committee in the Columbia, Md., alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta, Inc., which, among other activities, encourages middle school students to explore STEM careers through participation in outreach activities and an annual science fair.

Kelley Rogers is a technical program advisor for biosciences in NIST's Material Measurement Laboratory. She has been an active advocate for science education in public schools, and now knows that as a teenager, she should have listened more to her dad’s dinner conversations about quality assurance for manufacturing.

John Butler is a NIST Fellow and special assistant to the director for forensic science. He is a leading expert in DNA and has written textbooks on DNA typing methodology and interpretation. Through DNA testing, he has also shown that he is the father of his six children.

Charles W. Clark, aka Carbon Tungsten Chlorine Argon Potassium, is among a select group of NIST staff whose surnames can be spelled with the chemical symbols of consecutive elements of the Periodic Table. In addition to this distinction, Charles is a NIST Fellow and Fellow and past co-director of the Joint Quantum Institute (JQI), a research collaboration that includes NIST and the University of Maryland. His research activities are focused on theoretical atomic, molecular and optical physics.

Michal Chojnacky joined the NIST Thermodynamic Metrology group in 2009. Her work at NIST helps companies and other laboratories measure temperature accurately to regulate manufacturing processes and public utilities, keep products safe, and advance research and development in fields like aerospace, pharmaceuticals, and metrology. She prefers warmer climates to cold.

As the first person in her family to obtain a Ph.D., NIST Academic Program Manager Brandi Toliver channels her passion for chemistry and STEM outreach into overseeing the undergraduate STEM intern program, the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Program and the Professional Research Experience Program (PREP). During her free time, Brandi enjoys mentoring future generations, cooking, exercising, shopping, handling her beloved pit bull terriers in competitive dog shows and traveling to exotic destinations.

Willie E. May joined NIST as a chemist nearly 45 years ago and has contributed to a variety of ground-breaking research projects. He worked his way up through a number of leadership positions and on May 4, 2015, was confirmed by a unanimous Senate vote as the 15th director of NIST and the second Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology.

Howard Yoon has spent the past 25 years thinking about how to measure light more accurately, 19 of them as a researcher in NIST’s Optical Radiation Group. His work improves standards that make it possible to use light as a measurement tool. His favorite wavelength of light is 650 nanometers, the wavelength historically used for optically determining the temperatures of metals.