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.
Michael Nelson (Fed)
Physical Scientist
Dr. Michael Nelson is a scientist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Office of Weights and Measures (OWM). He is dedicated to developing regulatory standards that promote US innovation and consumer protection. Michael is currently a member of the OWM Legal Metrology Groups. He serves as a representative for the United States to the International Organization of Legal Metrology (OIML), an intergovernmental treaty organization committed to harmonizing laws, regulations, and consumer protection standards for measuring technologies employed in healthcare and commercial applications. Michael has held leadership roles in representing the U.S. and NIST to numerous standards development organizations (SDOs) such as the US Pharmacopeia (USP), the International Federation of Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine (IFCC), the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).
Before joining the OWM, Michael was a Research Chemist in the NIST Chemical Sciences Division for over ten years. During this time, he held several responsibilities, including leadership in developing a suite of laboratory QA/QC products (NIST Standard Reference Materials®) used worldwide to ensure quality in laboratory medicine, forensic analysis, food labeling, and pharmaceutical product development. Michael also represented the U.S. in specialized groups of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) Consultative Committee for Amount of Substance: Metrology in Chemistry and Biology (CCQM). He has collaborated extensively with the NIST Statistical Engineering Division to develop new statistical methods and a suite of web-based statistical analysis applications for designing efficient measurement procedures and rigorously evaluating experimental data (ABACUS). He also instructed graduate-level classes on metrological principles and management of chemical testing laboratories, both in the U.S. and abroad.
Michael has expertise in the use of NMR spectroscopy. He developed a “first-of-its-kind” primary standard (NIST PS1) for quantitative nuclear magnetic resonance (qNMR) methods, which is used throughout the world to establish traceability of quantitative chemical analyses to the International System of Units (SI).
Awards
- U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award, National Institute of Standards andTechnology (2023)
- U.S. Department of Commerce Bronze Medal Award, National Institute of Standards andTechnology (2018)
- Material Measurement Laboratory Service and Support Award, National Institute of Standards and Technology (2022)
- Cooperation on International Traceability in Chemistry in Analytical Chemistry, Best Publications Award (2021)
- Cooperation on International Traceability in Chemistry in Analytical Chemistry, Best Publications Award (2019)
- Material Measurement Laboratory Technical Outreach Award, National Institute of Standards and Technology (2017)
- ACS Student Chemistry Award, American Chemical Society, Maryland Section (2007)
