NIST Advisory Committee Welcomes New Members Allen Adler, Waguih Ishak

Boeing's Allen Adler and Corning's Waguih Ishak have joined the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology (VCAT), the agency's primary private-sector policy advisory group. Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director Willie E. May appointed Adler and Ishak for 3-year terms.

Adler is vice president of Enterprise Technology Strategy for The Boeing Company. He leads the company's strategic planning for technology, setting research priorities and fostering enterprise-wide collaboration and replication of key technologies across the company's multiple global businesses. Before joining Boeing, Adler served at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency as director of the Tactical Technology Office, which had responsibility for the initial phases of the Future Combat Systems and Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle programs.

Adler earned a Bachelor of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1973 and a doctorate from Princeton in 1978, both in physics.

Ishak joined Corning in 2007 to establish the Corning West Technology Center (CWTC), where he is vice president and director of the center's Science and Technology Division. CWTC is a Corning Innovation Hub in Silicon Valley responsible for business development, collaborations and startups on the West Coast. Prior to joining Corning, Ishak held executive positions at Avago Technologies, Agilent Labs and Hewlett-Packard Labs.

Ishak obtained his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from Canada's McMaster University in 1978. He serves on the technical advisory boards of the University of California San Diego, Santa Clara University and the National Research Council Canada, and is a Life Fellow of IEEE.

The VCAT was established by Congress in 1988 to review and make recommendations on NIST's policies, organization, budget and programs. The next VCAT meeting will be Feb. 3 and 4, 2016, in Gaithersburg, Md.