An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Material Measurement Laboratory Fiscal Year 2014 (2015) / Chapter Skim
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Tools that include reference materials, data, and measurement services are developed to support industries that range from transportation to biotechnology and to address problems such as climate change, environmental sciences, renewable energy, health care, infrastructure, food safety and nutrition, and forensics. At the request of the Director of NIST, the National Research Council formed the Panel on Review of the Material Measurement Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology and established the following statement of task for the panel: The Panel on Review of the Material Measurement Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology will assess the scientific and technical work performed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
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The MML was formed in 2011 by combining the former Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, the Materials Science and Engineering Laboratory, and the portion of Technology Services responsible for production, packaging, and sales of NIST reference materials and reference data products. A subsequent reorganization within the MML in 2012 produced six technical divisions (down from 10)
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The MML therefore faces challenges with respect to achieving an effective balance between maintaining its success in ongoing efforts and initiating new ones that represent appropriate investment of MML resources in niches that will produce the best impact; appropriately allocating the resources of its staff, who are stretched thin in several areas; arranging for staff travel to and participation in activities that maintain and enrich their expertise; maintaining a proper ratio of scientists to supporting technicians; devising succession plans in anticipation of staff who will leave; maintaining an equipment infrastructure by applying make/buy/borrow/share strategies that provide stateof-the-art capabilities within cost constraints; and ensuring that the mission priorities of MML scientists and NIST administrative and legal staffs are aligned with respect to purchasing of equipment and other resources. MML staff participate in many standards organizations and other professional organizations, and research staff publish papers in peer-reviewed journals.
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Personnel exchanges with industry would be very useful: MML staff would better understand the development-to-product process and industrial partners could provide input for standards selection. For example, industry fellows could spend time at the MML, and MML staff could spend short sabbaticals learning industrial production processes.
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Staff reported that productivity is clearly hampered by slow responses and multiple levels of administrative oversight external to the MML, especially in the areas of contracting for purchases of supplies and equipment and for legal approvals for industry interactions, work for other government agencies, and use of clinical materials. Achieving the mission of the MML suffers when the controlling priority is compliance with legal and contracting procedural stipulations; both mission accomplishment and compliance should be possible if the priorities are rationally balanced.
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