Technical Excellence 2022

 

Below is a list of quick links to each of the 2021 MML Accolades for Technical Excellence where each accolade is described and a list of the awardees and their contributions are provided. 

• MML Collaboration and Teamwork

• MML Early Career

• Measurement Science Excellence

• Measurement Services Excellence

• MML Postdoctoral Fellow

• MML Science Data Management and Capabilities

• MML Student Intern

• MML Distinguished Associate

 

MML Collaboration and Teamwork

To recognize and foster teamwork across divisions and across OUs and beyond, honoring those, as a leader or as a team, who have used collaboration for successful project development and problem-solving.

 

Edward Sisco

For leading several new collaborative projects that have resulted in practical tools, innovative programs, and improved outcomes in forensic chemistry and public health.

 

 

 

 

Jennifer Berry, Jennifer Carney*, Christina Cecelski, Cassie Goodman, Kavita Jeerage

Christina Jones, Katrice Lippa, Tara Lovestead, Jacolin Murray, Paulina Piotrowski

For establishing a multidisciplinary research team between the Applied Chemicals and Materials Division and the Chemical Sciences Division to advance the metrology of exhaled breath through the development of calibration standards. *not pictured

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

MML Early Career

To recognize the superior work of MML associates and staff in the early portion of their career at NIST.

 

Benjamin Caplins

For significant, insightful, and proactive scientific contributions to two disparate material characterization projects in the Applied Chemicals and Materials Division: transmission scanning electron microscopy (t-SEM) and extreme ultraviolet atom probe tomography (EUV APT).

 

 

 

 

Edward Erisman

For significant contribution to several projects in the mass spectrometry data center, including the building of seized drug and general mass spectral libraries, the development of software tools for utilizing mass spectral libraries, and the onboarding of cutting-edge instrumentation.

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Robinson

For leading and developing critical quantitative measurement capabilities to support internal and external challenges in the fields of homeland security and forensics.

 

 

 

 

 

Stephanie Servetas

For Exceptional Contributions in Microbial Science Program Development.

 

 

 

 

 

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Measurement Science Excellence

To recognize MML staff and associates who conduct research that solves critical stakeholder problems and inspires innovations in measurement science.

 

Melis Kant

For the outstanding measurements of the inhibition of a major human DNA repair enzyme by potential anticancer drugs, the products in DNA irradiated by Ne-22 ion beams in relation to cancer therapy, and DNA lesions in cooked food associated with cancer.

 

 

 

 

 

Maria Vega Martinez

For outstanding experimental support and design of sample preparation methods for glass materials evaluated by Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA) and Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS).

 

 

 

 

 

Samantha Maragh

For leadership in two key outputs in 2021: 1) Publication of the first ISO standards document for Genome Engineering; 2) the first and largest successful deployment of human DNA and cells for a NIST ILS.

 

 

 

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Measurement Services Excellence

To recognize superior work in development of measurement services in the areas of Reference Materials (RMs)/Standard Reference Materials (SRMs), Standard Reference Instruments (SRIs), documentary standards, quality assurance programs, and interlaboratory studies.

 

Jennifer Dootz, Samuel Forry, Monique Hunter

Scott Jackson, Jason Kralj, Stephanie Servetas

For coordinating an international interlab study (The Mosaic Standards Challenge) designed to assess the impact of the methodological variability used for NGS-based microbiome measurements and understanding their impact on the results.

 

 

Karen Murphy

For continuous, outstanding leadership in the development of new analytical methods for the determination of elemental content in NIST SRMs consisting of food/dietary supplements, biological and environmental samples, and advanced materials, and for building the ICMG nanoparticle metrology research program.

 

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Science Data Management and Capabilities

To recognize those who build the infrastructure for the next generation of data science tools and data sets in order to facilitate scientific innovation.

 

Yannick Congo

For the development of the NIST Code Portal that enables NIST open source code, made public in github, to be automatically published to the code.nist.gov and accessible via https://code.gov

 

 

 

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

MML Postdoctoral Fellow

To recognize the superior work of the postdoctoral fellows who work with MML staff on scientific projects.

 

Greta Babakhanova

For developing cutting-edge metrology to introduce traceability into one of the most common of all biological measurements: trypan blue dye-exclusion test for measuring cell viability.

 

 

 

 

 

Robert Ivancic

For outstanding modeling of polyolefins in support of the circular economy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evan Jahrman

For outstanding work developing x-ray metrology for speciation analysis and materials characterization, and for extraordinary leadership developing and refining the concepts, coordinating the technical team, and shepherding an IMS proposal through the FY21 NIST level presentation.

 

 

 

 

Newell Moser

For extraordinarily creative achievements in the acquisition, analysis, and application of X-ray computed tomography scans to a wide range of important additively-manufactured materials.

 

 

 

________________________________________________________________________________________________

MML Student Intern

To recognize the superior work of the interns that work alongside MML staff on either scientific or administrative projects.

 

Aura Salazar

For automating microbial cell enumeration methods to develop a routine measurement capability for the NIST Microbial Metrology Team and to support characterization of microbial cell-based reference materials for microbiome measurements and pathogen detection.

 

 

 

 

Jiaxi Tang

For development of a Cython, multiprocessor version of a radial distribution function (RDF) code for the COMSOFT Tools Python library that led to speed improvements over 100 times faster than the original code, as well as numerous other individual contributions.

 

 

 

 

 

Stephen Tennyson

For leading the development of the NIST/NIJ DART-MS Data Interpretation Tool (DIT) and providing MML/NIST with a practical example of how implementing research algorithms as user-friendly software can greatly benefit the scientific community.

 

 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

MML Distinguished Associate

To recognize associates or previous staff members who have made outstanding contributions to MML goals.

This accolade is for work that earned the NIST staff member(s) a DOC-level award in the previous year, and is designed to recognize associates or previous staff members that were critical to the success of the work.

 

 

Adolfas Gaigalas

For the rapid development and deployment of new quantitative serological and neutralization assays critical for supporting COVID-19 response.

For significant contributions to work that received a 2021 DOC Gold medal with Lili Wang, Linhua Tian, Elzafir Elsheikh, Sarah Inwood, and Sheng Lin-Gibson.

 

 

 

 

Elyssia Gallagher, Yves Aubin       

Geneviève Gingras, Houman Ghasriani

For accelerating adoption of precision methods to determine protein structure, supporting the biopharmaceutical industry and regulatory authorities.

For significant contributions to work that received a 2021 DOC Silver medal with Jeffrey Hudgens, Kyle Anderson, Ioannis Karageorgos, Robert Brinson, Frank Delaglio, Luke Arbogast, John Marino, Ryan Evans, and Anthony Kearsley.

 

 

 

Gail Porter  and Edward Vicenzi

For characterization of the performance and usage of facemasks used to slow the spread of COVID-19, and communication of the results to the public.

For significant contributions to work that received a 2021 DOC Bronze medal with Christopher Zangmeister, James Radney, Jamie Weaver, Matthew Staymates, Robin Materese, Riley Wilson, Richard Press, Leon Gerskovic.

 

 

 

Sri Vikram Palagummi and Zhengzhi Wang

For developing a suite of tools and a documentary standard to support advancements and improved clinical longevity for dental composite restorations.

For significant contributions to work that received a 2021 DOC Bronze medal with Martin Chiang.

 

 

 

Sarah Riman

For development and characterization of a next-generation forensic DNA Standard Reference Material using a diverse suite of molecular techniques.

For significant contributions to work that received a 2021 NIST French award with Becky Steffen, Erica Romsos, Katherine Gettings, Kevin Kiesler, Lisa Borsuk, Hariharan Iyer, and Peter Vallone.

 

 

 

Jarred Heigel* and Fan Zhang

For establishing the AM Bench Test Series to increase the reliability of simulations of additive manufacturing processes that are critical to industry. *not pictured

For significant contributions to work that received a 2021 NIST Slichter award with Lyle Levine, Brandon Lane (EL), Kalman Migler, Shawn Moylan, Mark Stoudt, Maureen Williams, Jonathan Seppala, Sandra Young, Thien Phan, Ho Yeung.

 

 

 

Nathan Hotaling

For development and transfer of tools to reliably quantify quality attributes of manufactured fiber-based scaffolds for the regenerative medicine industry.

For significant contributions to work that received a 2021 NIST Rabinow award with Carl Simon.

 

 

 

 

Olle Heinonen

For establishing the crucial infrastructures and community buy-in supporting benchmark challenges for phase field modeling efforts.

For significant contributions to work that received a 2021 DOC Bronze medal with Daniel Wheeler, Trevor Keller, Jonathon Guyer, and James Warren.