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David W. Flater (Fed)

Computer Scientist

Dr. Flater is a Computer Scientist with the Software and Systems Division of the Information Technology Laboratory at the US National Institute of Standards and Technology.  His current research focus is software metrology—helping physical scientists and computer scientists understand one another a little bit better so that metrology (the science of measurement) and science generally (the system of human knowledge) will be more cohesive across disciplines.

Dr. Flater's previous works have covered interoperability, semantics, conceptual integrity, and conceptual modelling.  His software portfolio includes the NIST SQL conformance test suite, bootBCa, Chrome Reaper, and Votetest.  He has worked with ANSI X3H2, OMG, the CCU, and the TGDC on various standards.

Awards

Department of Commerce Gold Medal, 2008, for scientific achievement in the development of voting systems standards and guidelines

Publications

A unified model of core metrological concepts

Author(s)
David W. Flater, Raghu N. Kacker, Douglas Foxvog
The definitions of core metrological terms, especially quantity, quantity value, and unit, have been the subject of years of wrangling in standards

Letter to the editor: Unit one is intrusive

Author(s)
David W. Flater
The SI brochure's treatment of quantities that it regards as dimensionless, with the associated unit one, requires certain physical quantities to be regarded as

What does the pixel measure?

Author(s)
David W. Flater
The pixel is often used as a unit of measurement in information technology. Unfortunately, there is not a simple, consistently-applicable answer to what it is a
Created June 4, 2019, Updated December 8, 2022