CNST Joins PML

Beginning October 1, 2018, NIST’s Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST) will become part of the Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML). Merging CNST with PML will enable more effective management of programs and resources that previously spanned both organizations. 

Research staff from the CNST NanoLab and PML will be combined to form two new divisions within PML. The CNST NanoFab user facility will largely remain unchanged and continue to serve both NIST and external users. It will retain the CNST name.

“We welcome the CNST staff and look forward to the breadth of knowledge and experience that the staff brings with it,” said PML Acting Director Carl Williams. “Both PML and CNST will benefit from a sharing of resources and ideas.”

“I know firsthand, having been deputy director of CNST, how much the CNST personnel will contribute to PML and will continue to contribute to the overall NIST mission,” said Jim Kushmerick, PML’s Acting Deputy Director.

PML’s new Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division will focus on advancing nanofabrication technologies and developing integrated measurement microsystems. Staff will also collaborate with industries, universities, standards groups and other government agencies to enhance technology transfer and support U.S. industry. 

That division comprises six groups—photonics and plasmonics, optomechanics and microsystems, single emitters, biophysics, biomedical microtechnologies, and nanoscale and nanostructure metrology.

The other new PML division, Nanoscale Device Characterization, aims to develop and advance measurements to characterize atomic- and nanoscale engineered materials and devices for innovation in computing, informatics, and sensing. The division is divided into five groups: atomic-scale devices, nanoscale spectroscopy, nanoscale imaging, nanoscale processes and measurements, and alternative computing.