NIST

An agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce

Founded in 1901, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a nonregulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. With headquarters in Gaithersburg, Maryland, NIST’s mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life.

Wed, 10/29/2025 - 12:03
NIST Guide Helps Small Businesses Improve Cybersecurity Explains basic steps businesses can take to better protect their information systems
Wed, 11/30/2016 - 17:45
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- Small-business owners may think that they are too small to be victims of cyber-hackers, but Pat Toth knows otherwise. Toth leads outreach efforts to small businesses on cybersecurity at the National Institute of…
Four U.S. Organizations Receive Nation’s Highest Honor for Performance Excellence 2016 Baldrige Award goes to small businesses and healthcare providers
Fri, 11/18/2016 - 00:00
The U.S. Commerce Secretary, Penny Pritzker, has named four organizations as the 2016 recipients of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the nation’s highest presidential honor for sustainable excellence through visionary leadership,…
NIST Unveils Forensic Technique to Measure Mechanical Properties of Evidence
Thu, 11/17/2016 - 10:33
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- You may have seen it on CSI: The star examines hair from a crime scene and concludes its color or texture looks like the defendant’s hair, or maybe his dog’s. Case closed. But looks can be deceiving, as well as vague…
Anthrax Detector, 3D Endoscope Among Highlights of NIST Tech Transfer Report Turning research into consumer products
Wed, 11/16/2016 - 15:55
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has released the Federal Laboratory Technology Transfer, Fiscal Year 2014, Summary Report to the President and Congress. Including both quantitative and qualitative measures of effectiveness…
Meet Bob, PML’s Second ‘Primary’ Coordinate Measuring Machine NIST’s overworked calibration tool gets a brother
Tue, 11/08/2016 - 15:46
Until recently, if a company wanted the best measurements in the world for the physical dimensions of one of its dimensional standards, it had to book time on the NIST Physical Measurement Laboratory’s (PML) Moore M48 coordinate measuring machine (…
Introducing ManufacturingUSA.com New website shares the progress of institutes and Manufacturing USA partners to improve U.S. manufacturing
Mon, 10/24/2016 - 15:19
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Manufacturing National Program Office has launched a new industry-facing website, ManufacturingUSA.com. In September 2016, U.S. Secretary of Commerce…
Baldrige Program Seeks Candidates for 2017 Baldrige Executive Fellows Program Program uses peer learning to enable organizations to become more effective and profitable
Thu, 10/13/2016 - 14:34
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The Baldrige Program is seeking qualified candidates for the 2017 Baldrige Executive Fellows Program, which is a one-year, nationally ranked leadership development experience designed to facilitate dialogue on all…
Counting Down to the New Ampere Quantum-based measurement system coming in 2018
Mon, 09/19/2016 - 14:00
After it’s all over, your lights will be just as bright, and your refrigerator just as cold. But very soon the ampere—the base unit in the International System of Units (SI) for electrical current—will take on an entirely new identity. In 2018, the…
An Optical Method of Sorting Nanoparticles by Size This system offers what may be the first way to connect particle size to a fundamental SI unit
Mon, 09/12/2016 - 13:23
NIST scientists have devised and modeled a unique optical method of sorting microscopic and nanoscopic particles by size, with a resolution as fine as 1 nm for particles of similar composition. A stream of particles of various sizes enters the…
Fifteen Organizations to Receive Site Visits for 2016 Baldrige Award Majority of late-September visits will be to healthcare organizations
Tue, 08/30/2016 - 15:43
(NIST: Gaithersburg, MD) -- The judges panel for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA) chose 15 organizations to proceed to Site Visit Review, the final stage of the evaluation process for the nation’s highest award for organizational…