Jacob Edmond Ricker (Fed)

Jacob Ricker, mechanical engineer, has over 10 years of pressure and vacuum experience and is currently working at NIST where he develops state of the art vacuum calibration systems and conducts research into the next generation vacuum technology. Jacob maintains and operates the primary standard for pressure and vacuum measurement in the US and is responsible for calibrating pressure and vacuum gauges at NIST in the range of 10-3 Pa to 360 kPa. In addition to calibrating vacuum gauges, his vacuum measurement research is focused evaluating different measurement methods and hybrid vacuum gauges for improvement of measurement capabilities within industry and enhancing the dissemination of traceability outside of NIST.

Jacob first started working for NIST in 2001 as a summer research student. As a student he designed software, assisted in calibrations, and constructed/analyzed 3-D piston gauge models. After graduation, he worked for the Naval Surface Warfare Center on acoustic systems before returning to NIST in 2010. In 2012, he lead the launch of a new automated Vacuum Calibration Service, providing a low cost vacuum gauge calibration service to increase availability of direct NIST traceability covering the range from 0.5 Pa to 130 kPa. Additionally he is working to launch a new NIST portable vacuum standard for customer measurements requiring ultra-high accuracy or onsite self-calibrations. Finally, he is part of a new team working to redefine how we measure pressure, temperature, and length. This team plans to create a new primary standard (from 1 Pa to 360 kPa) using a revolutionary quantum measurement method within the next three years.