An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratories Fiscal Year 2002 (2002) / Chapter Skim
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1 The State of the Laboratories
1 The State of the Laboratories
Pages 1-12
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In addition to information obtained from these meetings, this report is also based on the reports of the seven major panels and one ad hoc panel operating under the Board. Each panel met with the managers and staff of the NIST Measurement and Standards Laboratories (MSL)
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TECHNICAL MERIT OF LABORATORY PROGRAMS Each of the seven panels assessing the individual Measurement and Standards Laboratories found that the technical quality of the ongoing work remains quite high overall. In addition, each laboratory had instances of work that was outstanding in its excellence, in its creativity, or in the level of technical skill demonstrated.
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From page 3... ...
· With support from the National Institute of Justice and in collaboration with university researchers, NIST has for several years maintained a program in the development of DNA forensics tools and standards. NIST researchers had made substantial progress in developing mass spectroscopic measurements for performing short tandem repeat DNA typing on DNA samples of lengths shorter than those that can be probed by existing methods.
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NIST researchers quickly mobilized to test the effectiveness of electron-beam decontamination of mail, helping to design a decontamination protocol to enable resumption of mail delivery to federal sites and coordinating the interagency task force set up by the White House to address this problem. Strategic Planning Across the NIST laboratories, individual projects are generally aligned with some identified customer need.
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From page 5... ...
NIST has also been able to attract excellent researchers into its postdoctoral program, the traditional route for eventual permanent hires. The age profile of NIST staff indicates that a significant number of retirements will occur among the technical staff in the next 5 to 10 years.
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For example, anticipated retirements mean that a significant turnover in permanent staff will be occurring, but the Board and panels did not see evidence that strategic plans were being utilized to develop personnel plans to guide hiring over the next several years. The NIST facilities plan does not yet appear to be tied to the NIST strategic planning process, and the Board and panels have seen no major equipment plan.
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Eventually, linkages to the strategic plan should be seen at the level of individual projects. · The laboratory has clearly placed increased emphasis on interactions with NIST customers; the panel applauds this outreach effort and has seen the positive impact that these relationships have on project selection and dissemination.
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· The Physics Laboratory must continue to develop a strategic planning and prioritization process that results in clear laboratory goals and priorities which can be used by the laboratory and its divisions to allocate resources, determine program prioritization, and produce enhanced program focus and effectiveness. · The panel recommends enhanced efforts to develop interlaboratory collaborations and other partnerships that would help leverage Physics Laboratory resources while more effectively meeting NIST-wide strategic goals.
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· Structural fire testing is both an important element of homeland security work and an appropriate long-term programmatic growth area for BFRL and its customers. The laboratory should be prepared to propose construction of a state-of-the-art facility for fire testing of structures under load as part of the homeland security effort and to make a commitment to sustaining a structural fire research program over the long term.
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The panel applauds the laboratory's efforts in outreach and notes that the progress reflects improvement in a whole range of areas, from gathering wider and more useful input to help with project selection to increased dissemination and planning for how customers will utilize NIST results and products. · The strong customer relationships now need to be balanced by robust visibility and recognition in ITL' s external peer communities.
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From page 11... ...
The Strategic Focus Areas identified in the NIST strategic planning exercise provide a good template on which to build a measurement services strategy. The plan would also provide the basis for the needed facility and staff succession plans.
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