Ben P. Stein (Fed)

As the managing editor, Ben oversees the news releases, news stories, feature articles, and other content that the NIST communications office produces for general-public audiences. He enjoys helping NIST staff communicate their research and other activities to the larger world, guiding NIST writers to produce the very best pieces they can create, and mentoring early-career science communicators, including students in the NIST Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program.

Ben has both a science and writing background. A native of the Bronx, he graduated in 1990 with a bachelor’s of science with honors in physics from Binghamton University. In addition to his academic studies at Binghamton, he worked as an undergraduate researcher in a condensed-matter physics lab and served as editor-in-chief of the campus journal. Thanks to a guidance counselor, Ben became aware of science writing as a career and entered New York University’s Science, Health, and Environmental Reporting program, where he received a master’s in journalism.

In his career, Ben has worked at only two organizations: the American Institute of Physics (AIP) and NIST. 

In the NIST communications office, Ben first served as director of media relations, then became managing editor, overseeing the content intended for the general public. Some of the editorial projects of which Ben is proudest include the NIST and the Nobel website, the ongoing How Do You Measure It? web series, and the NIST on a Chip microsite, all of which have been highly collaborative projects involving the work of many talented people.

At AIP, Ben wrote news releases and media tipsheets for journal papers, ran pressrooms at meetings of AIP member societies such as the American Physical Society and the Acoustical Society of America, and organized press conferences for research being presented at those meetings. He went on to lead AIP’s nonprofit news service, Inside Science. The service produced news articles, blogs, and videos that were syndicated and used by major news organizations such as the Washington Post, NBCNews.com and the Christian Science Monitor. Pew’s 2013 State of the Media Report mentioned Inside Science as one of several “new players” that were “producing content that could advance citizens’ knowledge of public issues.”

Throughout his career, Ben has also co-written five science books for middle schoolers, and has written freelance science articles for multiple outlets including Physics World, New Scientist, Popular Science, Science World, and Salon. 

Ben is a longtime member of the National Association of Science Writers and a board member of the DC Science Writers Association, where he serves as treasurer and helps plan and organize DCSWA's annual professional development day.

Outside of work, Ben enjoys long-distance running, playing keyboards, travelling internationally, seeing live music, watching movies and listening to podcasts. 

HIGHLIGHTED Feature Article

• Why You Need Standards (May 23, 2022)

SELECTED Blog Posts

• 5 Weirdly Nonstandard Things About the Metric System (April 1, 2026)
• How NIST Helped Start an Industry: Our Role in Jump-Starting Quantum Information Science (May 28, 2025)
• Talk NISTy to Me: When Everyday Words Take On Different Meanings in Measurement Science (December 4, 2024)
• Measurement in the Movies (March 6, 2024)
• Why NIST Is Putting Its CHIPS Into U.S. Manufacturing (October 7, 2022)
• From the Noggin to the Butt: Quirky Measurement Units Throughout Human History (March 30, 2022)
• The Periodic Table: It's More than Just Chemistry and Physics (May 28, 2019)

•  NIST and the Nobel microsite: Communicator Awards for general science website (award of distinction) and feature copy or writing for websites (award of distinction), the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts Awards, 2018.
• Distinguished Independent Study in Physics, Binghamton University, 1990
• Presidential Scholar, Binghamton University, 1986-1990