News and Updates

Displaying 1 - 25 of 112

Happy Retirement, Cone Calorimeter!

March 31, 2022

After 40 years in service as a groundbreaking NIST-invented device for measuring the flammability of materials at the lab bench scale, the NIST cone calorimeter

Illustration shows two houses from above with distances marked between house, woodpile and shed for fire safety.

NIST Offers First-of-a-Kind Guidance for Holistic Home and Community Wildfire Protection

March 1, 2022

Once they have a foothold, severe wildfires can quickly overwhelm a community, particularly one that is densely packed. To shield houses against such a fierce

Scripps National News

February 22, 2022

Draft California Fire Code Includes NIST Tool to Evaluate Wildfire Hazard

September 13, 2021

Severe wildfire disasters are often the product of numerous factors — vegetation, drought, a lack of firefighting resources, and many others — coalescing

Illustration of a burning tree generating embers next to a device composed of four cameras fixed to the ends of metal arms.

NIST’s Emberometer Could Gauge Threat of Wildfire-Spreading Embers

August 18, 2021

As wildfire fronts advance through landscapes or communities on the ground, they also attack from above, launching volleys of glowing embers into the air. Also

Firefighters spray water into a burning concrete building with a sign saying "NIST Fire Research."

How AI Could Alert Firefighters of Imminent Danger

June 1, 2021

Firefighting is a race against time. Exactly how much time? For firefighters, that part is often unclear. Building fires can turn from bad to deadly in an

Flammability Reduction Group provides virtual seminar on Reducing the Fire Risk of Residential Upholstered Furniture Fires as part of SFPE Member Series

May 24, 2021

The “Low Heat Release Upholstered Furniture” project at the Fire Research Division (FRD) of National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) conducts

New Fire-Simulating Tool Could Improve In-Flight Fire Safety

March 24, 2021

Some of the most dangerous fires are the ones you don’t see coming. That goes not only for fires in buildings but for those kilometers off the ground, aboard

NIST Research Featured in Fire and Materials Journal Special Issue on Furniture Flammability

March 12, 2021

The NIST Flammability Reduction Group (FRG) recently contributed to the production of a Special Issue on Furniture Flammability in the Fire and Materials

New Timeline of Deadliest California Wildfire Could Guide Lifesaving Research and Action

February 8, 2021

On a brisk November morning in 2018, a fire sparked in a remote stretch of canyon in Butte County, California, a region nestled against the western slopes of

The New NIST Fire Calorimetry Database Is Available to Answer Your Burning Questions

January 7, 2021

This news article is reproduced from a blog post that originally appeared in the NIST TAKING MEASURE Just a Standard Blog on December 16th, 2020. By: Matthew

Diagram shows a mattress being set on fire by gas burners in a standard flammability test.

Mattress Flammability Standard Is a Lifesaver, NIST Report Finds

November 18, 2020

No matter how soft and cozy, beds that have gone up in flames are a source of some of the deadliest fires in the U.S. As large pieces of furniture loaded with

Remembering Randy Shields

July 27, 2020

John “Randy” Shields, a physical scientist in the Flammability Reduction Group of EL’s Fire Research Division, died suddenly of a heart attack on June 27, 2020

A fire test of an office building floor replica occurring in a fireproof compartment.

How Fire Causes Office-Building Floors to Collapse

March 24, 2020

Engineers and technicians at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) spent months meticulously recreating the long concrete floors supported

NIST Conducts Full-Scale Experiments to Demonstrate Flammability Risk of Residential Upholstered Furniture (RUF) and Potential Mitigation Strategies

March 12, 2020

The NIST Flammability Reduction Group (FRG) is conducting a series of full-scale fire experiments in collaboration with the National Fire Research Laboratory

NIST Releases a New Standard Cigarette for Testing the Flammability of Mattresses and Furniture

February 19, 2020

In efforts to reduce the number of deaths from smoking-related fires, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released a new supply of a

The Ninth Triennial International Fire & Cabin Safety Research Conference

October 29, 2019

Two members of the NIST Flammability Reduction group recently attended the Ninth Triennial International Fire & Cabin Safety Research Conference, which was

A woman wearing safety goggles (Laura Dubrulle) hold a stack of square wood samples in a scientific lab.

Spotlight: Laura Dubrulle

October 15, 2019

Closing down a highway of fire: NIST guest researcher Laura Dubrulle wants to keep your fence from going up in flames and taking your home with it. With small

Interflam 2019

July 14, 2019

Six members of the NIST Fire Research Division (including three current or former members of the Flammability Reduction Group) recently traveled to the Royal

FRPM19

July 1, 2019

Three members of the NIST Flammability Reduction group recently traveled to Turku, Finland for the biennial European Meeting on Fire Retardant Polymeric

Guidelines for Participation in the 2020 MaCFP Condensed Phase Workshop

June 14, 2019

The Measurement and Computation of Fire Phenomena (MaCFP) Working Group of the International Association of Fire Safety Science (IAFSS) has released its

Flammability Reduction Group Members Present at the 2019 BCC Flame Meeting

June 1, 2019

Two members of the NIST Flammability Reduction Group (FRG) recently traveled to San Antonio, Texas for the 30th Annual Conference on Recent Advances in Flame

NIST Drafts Public Comment to California Code of Regulations

May 14, 2019

Drs. Mauro Zammarano, William M. Pitts, Anthony Hamins, and Richard Gann of the Flammability Reduction Group submitted comments for consideration to the State

Dr. Mauro Zammarano selected to deliver keynote presentation at the European Meeting on Fire Retardant Polymeric Materials

May 13, 2019

Dr. Mauro Zammarano has been selected to deliver a keynote presentation at this year’s European Meeting on Fire Retardant Polymeric Materials (FRPM19). Dr

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park Gatlinburg Welcome Center sign is half-burned, leaving only the Gatlinburg name and a white arrow. Debris lies on the ground in front of the sign.

Official NIST Survey to Support Data Collection on Chimney Tops 2 Fire, Improve Emergency Communications

March 29, 2019

GAITHERSBURG, Md.—The U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is seeking help from residents of Sevier County

Advanced communications
-Quantum communications
-Wireless (RF)
Bioscience
-Biomanufacturing
-Biomaterials
-Biomolecular characterization
-Cell biology
-Engineering / synthetic biology
-Genomics
-Glycomics
-Metabolomics
-Microbial measurements
-Proteomics
Buildings and Construction
-Building codes and standards
-Building control systems
-Building damage and repair
-Building economics
-Building materials
-Energy efficiency
-Heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment
-Indoor air quality
-Structural engineering
-Thermal comfort
Chemistry
-Analytical chemistry
-Chemical engineering and processing
-Chemical thermodynamics and chemical properties
-Molecular characterization
-Theoretical chemistry and modeling
-Thermochemical properties
Electronics
-Electromagnetics
-Flexible electronics
-Magnetoelectronics
-Optoelectronics
-Organic electronics
-Semiconductors
-Sensors
-Superconducting electronics
Energy
-Alternative energy
-Conventional energy
-Electric power / smart grid
-Fuels
Environment
-Air / water / soil quality
-Climate
-Environmental health
-Greenhouse gas measurements
-Marine science
-Sustainability
Fire
-Emergency building evacuation
-Fire detection
-Fire dynamics and science
-Fire fighting
-Fire modeling
-Fire risk reduction
-Materials flammability
-Structural fire resistance
-Wildland urban interface fire
Forensic Science
-Ballistics
-Digital evidence
-DNA and biological evidence
-Drugs and toxicology
-Fingerprints and pattern evidence
-Trace evidence
Health
-Clinical diagnostics
-Dentistry
-Food and nutrition
-Medical imaging
-Pharmaceuticals
-Precision medicine
-Regenerative medicine
Information technology
-Artificial intelligence
--Applied AI
--Fundamental AI
-Biometrics
-Cloud computing and virtualization
-Complex systems
-Computational science
-Conformance testing
-Cyber-physical systems
--Smart cities
-Cybersecurity
--Cryptography
--Cybersecurity education and workforce development
--Cybersecurity measurement
--Identity and access management
--Privacy engineering
--Risk management
--Securing emerging technologies
--Trustworthy networks
--Trustworthy platforms
-Data and informatics
--Human language technology
--Information retrieval
--Natural language processing
-Federal information standards (FIPS)
-Health IT
-Internet of Things (IoT)
-Interoperability testing
-Mobile
-Networking
--Mobile and wireless networking
--Network management and monitoring
--Network modeling and analysis
--Network security and robustness
--Network test and measurement
--Next generation networks
--Protocol design and standardization
--Software defined and virtual networks
-Privacy
-Software research
--Software testing
-Usability and human factors
--Accessibility
-Video analytics
-Virtual / augmented reality
-Visualization research
-Voting systems
Infrastructure
Manufacturing
-Additive manufacturing
-Factory communications
-Factory operations planning and control
-Interoperability in manufacturing
-Machining
-Manufacturing economics
-Manufacturing systems design and analysis
-Monitoring, diagnostics and prognostics
-Process improvement
-Process measurement and control
-Product data
-Quality assurance
-Robotics in manufacturing
--Agility and adaptability
--Collaborative robots
--Dexterous grasping
--Manipulation
--Mobility and industrial autonomous vehicles
--Navigation / actuation / control
--Sensing and perception
-Supply chain
-Sustainable manufacturing
-Systems engineering
-Systems integration
-Technology commercialization
Materials
-Ceramics
-Composites
-Concrete / cement
-Materials characterization
--Composition and structure
--Mechanical properties
--Thermal properties
-Metals
-Modeling and computational material science
-Polymers
-Superconductors
Mathematics and statistics
-Experiment design
-Image and signal processing
-Modeling and simulation research
-Numerical methods and software
-Statistical analysis
-Uncertainty quantification
Metrology
-Amount of substance
-Dimensional metrology
-Electrical / electromagnetic metrology
-Flow metrology and rheology
-Force metrology
-Humidity metrology
-Ionizing radiation metrology
-Mass metrology
-Metric
-Optical / photometry / laser metrology
-Pressure and vacuum metrology
-Thermometry metrology
-Time and frequency metrology
-Weights and measures
Nanotechnology
-Nanobiotechnology
-Nanochemistry
-Nanoelectronics
-Nanofabrication / manufacturing
--Lithography
--Self-assembly
-Nanofluidics
-Nanomagnetics
-Nanomaterials
-Nanomechanics
-Nanometrology
-Nanophotonics
-Nanophysics
-Nanoplasmonics
Neutron research
Performance excellence
-Assessment tools and services
-Baldrige award
-Baldrige examiners
-Baldrige Framework and Criteria
-Best practices
-Leadership development
Physics
-Atomic / molecular / quantum
-Biological physics
-Condensed matter
-Electron physics
-Magnetics
-Nuclear physics
-Optical physics and communications
-Quantum information science
-Radiation
-Spectroscopy
-Thermodynamics
-Time and frequency
Public safety
-Chemical / Biological / Radiological / Nuclear / Explosives (CBRNE)
-First responder preparedness
-Law enforcement
-Public safety communications research
-Response robots
Resilience
-Community resilience
-Disaster and failure studies
-Earthquake risk reduction
-Resilience economics
-Resilient materials
-Windstorm impact reduction
Standards
-Accreditation
-Calibration services
-Conformity assessment
-Documentary standards
-Frameworks
-Reference data
-Reference instruments
-Reference materials
-Standards education
Transportation
-Aerospace
-Automotive