Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock (
) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.
Carolyn Q. Burdette (Fed)
Research Chemist | Biochemical & Exposure Science Group | Chemical Sciences Division
Carolyn is a research chemist in the Biochemical and Exposure Science Group within NIST’s Chemical Science Division. She has over a decade of experience advancing measurement science, high-accuracy mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS), and quality assurance frameworks. Her work focuses on delivering measurement support infrastructure that bolsters measurement trust across biological, nutritional, and environmental matrices.
Looking forward, her group is expanding measurement infrastructure to address next-generation challenges in Precision Health/Medicine and Aquaculture Biotechnology.
Strategic Roles & Professional Service
- MML Detailee, Program Coordination Office (Jan 2026 – Present): Serves as the Material Measurement Laboratory(MML) rotating staff member in the Program Coordination Office (PCO), supporting NIST senior leadership in strategic planning, program evaluation, and policy execution to align MML research initiatives with broader agency goals.
- JCTLM Review Team Lead: Leads the Vitamins and Micronutrients Review Team for the Joint Committee for Traceability in Laboratory Medicine (JCTLM), establishing global accuracy bases for diagnostic health assays.
- Interagency & Technical Committees: Serves on the Interagency Coordinating Committee on Oil Pollution Research (ICCOPR) and former leadership roles within AOAC Technical Division on Reference Materials (TDRM).
Precision Medicine & Health Measurements
- Standardization & Comparability: Spearheads measurement assurance for critical health biomarkers (e.g., fat-soluble vitamins, nutritional markers, and clinical metabolites) to ensure comparability across global testing laboratories and advance ground-truth fieldable technologies.
- Reference Material Innovation: Developed and value-assigned high-impact Standard Reference Materials (SRMs) for human serum, plasma, and prenatal health applications (e.g., SRM 1955a, SRM 972a, SRM 1949).
- Quality Assurance Program (QAP) Infrastructure: Coordinated and modernized NIST-wide QAPs across dietary supplements, food nutrition, health assessments, and cannabis measurements to assist stakeholder laboratories in maintaining high measurement quality.
Aquaculture & Environmental Biotechnology
- Measurement Science for Aquaculture: Driving NIST initiatives to deliver high-confidence reference materials and quality assurance programs tailored to the growing aquaculture industry.
- Seaweed & Marine Tissue Quality: Led research supporting the standardization of seaweed measurements and marine tissue SRMs to support safety, yield, and biotechnology innovation.
- Chemical Contaminant Surveillance: Applied high-accuracy mass spectrometry to quantify organic contaminants, environmental toxins, and PFAS across terra and marine ecosystems.
Past Professional Activities
- American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS)
- AOAC International
- Stakeholder Panels; SPDS (Stakeholder Panel on Dietary Supplements), SPSFAM (Stakeholder Panel on Strategic Food Analytical Methods), SPIFAN (Stakeholder Panel on Infant Formula and Adult Nutritionals)
- AOAC Technical Division on Reference Materials (TDRM)
- Washington Chromatography Discussion Group (WCDG)
Awards
- NIST MML Technology Transfer Accolade (2024) - Recognized for developing a series of video tutorials for the Database Infrastructure of the Mass Spectrometry project. (Group award with Jared Ragland and Alix Rodowa)
- NIST Allen V. Astin Measurement Science Award (2018) – Recognized for creating the measurement infrastructure required for global assessment of the role of vitamin D in human health. (Group award with Mary Bedner, Johanna Camara, Katrice Lippa, Karen Phinney, and Lane Sander)
- NIST MML Outreach Accolade (2017) Recognized for efforts in organizing and leading the NIST/SIM Chemical Metrology Working Group Training Opportunity: Isotope Dilution-Mass Spectrometry Clinical Measurement Course; NIST Special Publication 1209
- NIST MML Angel Investor Fund Award ($180k) (2014) Awarded for the project titled “A High-Throughput, Surface-Based Ionization Technique.”