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Environment

Through its partnerships with industry, government, and academia, NIST is helping to advance measurements and tools for environmental science, for example by calibrating the sensors of climate-mapping satellites and detecting ever more minute quantities of toxins and pollutants in our air, soil, water and blood.

The Research

Projects & Programs

Plastic Pollution Measurement Science

Ongoing
Plastic pollution is a complex mixture of various types of plastics with different shapes and chemical additives. From microscopic nanoplastics (as small as 1 nm) to large megaplastics (over 1 m), plastic pollution poses significant measurement science challenges. By developing accurate methods for

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)

Ongoing
Perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) constitute a family of compounds that are distinguished by partial or complete fluorination of alkyl hydrocarbons. Dubbed “forever chemicals”, the unique chemistry of PFAS imparts a high level of stability, making the compounds resistant to

Fundamental Guided Wave Metrology

Ongoing
The science of microwave measurements is expanding in many different directions. There is a constant push to use higher frequencies. Signals are becoming much more complex and include modulation effects, multiport/differential signals, complex waveforms, and other unusual signal schemes. On-wafer

Additional Resources Links

News

Tracking Hormones on Land and at Sea

It’s usually pretty straightforward to explain how my work on clinical measurements is a benefit to society, but sometimes I get confused looks when I tell people about my work on whales, alligators and fish, to name a few. At the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), I work on measurement science for endocrinology. Endocrinology is the science of hormones such as the commonly

Biden-Harris Administration Opens $100 million Competition to Accelerate R&D and AI Technologies for Sustainable Semiconductor Materials

NIST Scientists Use DNA Origami on a Chip to Detect Biomolecules

NIST Awards $15 Million to ASTM International to Establish Standardization Center of Excellence

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