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NIST History

History Blogs

Analyzing the Aftermath of the Twin Towers Aircraft Impacts

August 27, 2021

I consider myself lucky to have been able to perform contract engineering research and consulting for my entire career. The work environment has been somewhere

Putting Together the Big Picture for the World Trade Center Disaster Investigation

August 25, 2021

Imagine assembling a jigsaw puzzle of more than 14,000 pieces without an image on the box showing what the final picture will look like. Imagine that important

How 9/11 Changed Me and First Responder Communications

August 20, 2021

If you remember Sept. 11, 2001, that day is most likely imprinted on your mind like no other day. You remember what you were doing and who you were with. You

20 Years Later: NIST's World Trade Center Investigation and Its Legacy

August 18, 2021

The collapse of the World Trade Center (WTC) buildings following the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, was one of the worst-ever building disasters in

A grid of 12 obviously old photos individuals' face from their shoulder up. In each photo is a four-digit code for that person

The Pandemic Poet and Other Tales From a NIST ‘Genealogy’ Project

May 19, 2021

One of my work-from-home projects was getting to know the staff of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, then called the National Bureau of

A ‘Forever’ Stamp and a Discovery That Changed Physics Forever

March 10, 2021

With a new “forever” stamp honoring "First Lady of Physics" Chien-Shiung Wu, we have come very close to seeing a National Institute of Standards and Technology

From 1901 to 2021: Measurements Then and Now

March 3, 2021

A lot has changed at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) in the past 120 years. For one thing, we were known as the National Bureau of

How NIST Helped Hero Pilot Jimmy Doolittle Fly

August 19, 2020

As portrayed by movie star Spencer Tracy in Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, pilot James (Jimmy) Doolittle led the 1942 air raid on Japan that lifted American spirits

NIST’s Role in TV Throughout the Decades

July 28, 2020

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences today announced nominations for the 2020 Primetime Emmy Awards, which recognize some of the best TV shows of the year

The Life of (Buckingham) Pi

March 14, 2020

What do the following topics have in common? Pricing models for parking reservation systems. The mechanics of human walking. The die-down of water waves in sea

Created March 1, 2021