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Mark Esser (Fed)

Writer/Editor

Mark Esser has been a writer/editor in the NIST Public Affairs Office since October 2007. During that time, he has produced content in multiple mediums for internal and external audiences about NIST's history, programs, policy, people and research, including physics, nanotechnology, materials science, chemistry, standard reference materials (SRMs), and weights and measures. He has served as the media contact for various divisions, and he has represented NIST both as a tour guide and presenter and at conferences and expositions such as the AAAS Annual Meeting and the USA Science and Engineering Festival.

He launched NIST's Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn social media accounts in 2009 and served as primary administrator and content creator for the accounts until 2019.

He has written and narrated video scripts on scientific subjects, such as NIST's F-2 atomic clock and mercury reduction program, as well as recruitment videos and episodes of the NISTory video series.

He helped to create the League of SI Superheroes in 2014 and wrote, narrated and did voice acting for several episodes, in addition to developing other content featuring the Superheroes.

He has also produced other children's education content such as NIST in Your Day.

He launched the NIST Taking Measure blog in 2016 and served as contributing and managing editor until 2021.

He has written speeches and other content for the NIST director and other senior NIST management, and he has also written content for the Department of Commerce website and contributed to speeches and correspondence for several Secretaries of Commerce.

He now works in NIST's Internal Communications & Inquiries Group where he writes for NIST's internal newsletter, administrates and develops content for the internal website, produces and programs content for NIST's internal digital signage, and develops and leads tours of NIST's facilities on its Gaithersburg, Maryland, campus.

Selected Taking Measure blog posts:

Keeping Time at NIST

Charging Ahead: Weights and Measures Week 2020

The Tangled Tale of NIST’s Newton Apple Tree

Going Nuts over NIST’s Standard Reference Peanut Butter

From 1901 to 2021: Measurements Then and Now

How Do You Measure It?:

How Do You Measure Air Temperature Accurately?

How Do You Measure the Performance of Body Armor?

How Do Smoke Detectors Work?

How Do You Measure Your Location Using GPS?

How Do You Know You’re Getting What You Pay For at the Grocery Store?

How Do You Measure the Age of Things?

How Do You Measure the Thrust of a Rocket Engine?

How Do We Measure Time?

News

Happy Retirement, Cone Calorimeter!

After 40 years in service as a groundbreaking NIST-invented device for measuring the flammability of materials at the lab bench scale, the NIST cone calorimeter
Created October 9, 2019, Updated December 8, 2022