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Environment

NIST Joins the National Particulate Matter Research Program

With the signing of a recent agreement, NIST has joined an interagency effort led by the Environmental Protection Agency—the National Particulate Matter Research Program—aimed at improving the nation’s air quality and public health. NIST will develop and provide the fundamental chemical measurements and standard reference materials that will serve as the basis for improved monitoring of air quality by government and industry.

Particulate matter is a mix of coarse and fine particles in the air produced by natural processes as well as human activities. About 10 to 100 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, fine particulate matter can consist of dust, ashes, soot and sea salt aerosols. The challenge is to identify and measure accurately the chemical components—specifically, the toxic ones—and collect enough particulate to constitute a representative sample. Under the two-year agreement with the EPA, NIST and its partners will develop urban particulate matter reference materials, a special thin-film glass standard for X-ray fluorescence analysis and technology for large-scale collection of fine airborne particulate matter. This work will enable the accurate measurement of emissions from various pollutant sources such as industrial plants and vehicles.

For more information about NIST’s particulate matter research, contact chemist Mike Verkouteren, NIST’s representative to the interagency coordinating committee, (301) 975-3933.

Media Contact:
Pamela A. Houghtaling, (301) 975-5745

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Awards

Two NIST Boulder Researchers Honored as PECASE Recipients

President Clinton named two NIST researchers on Oct. 24, 2000, as recipients of the fifth annual Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers, the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on young professionals at the outset of their independent research careers.

Deborah Jin and Mark W. Keller, physicists at NIST’s Boulder, Colo., Laboratories, were among 59 US researchers chosen for the 2000 PECASE award.

Jin was recognized for her innovative and pioneering work leading to the realization of the world’s first degenerate Fermi atomic gas. In 1999, Jin and her colleagues at JILA, a research institute jointly operated by NIST and the University of Colorado at Boulder, cooled fermionic atoms (those that exhibit a particular quantum mechanical behavior) to near absolute zero where the most basic nature of gas is dominant. Study of the Fermi degenerate gas will increase our knowledge about and understanding of fermions, which are important throughout physics since the basic building blocks of matter—electrons, protons and neutrons—are all fermions.

Keller designed and fabricated the world’s first electron pump containing seven ultra-small electrical devices called tunnel junctions. Operating at temperatures less than one-tenth of a degree above absolute zero, the pump passes and counts individual electrons with an uncertainty of 0.01 parts per million. In other words, the pump would miss tallying only one electron in every 100 million passing through. Keller’s research paves the way for a new type of capacitance standard.

Both scientists receive five-year research grants to further their studies in support of critical government missions.

Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246

Collier Smith (Boulder), (303) 497-3198

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Manufacturing

NIST, Partners Seek Smooth Sailing for Shipyard Processes

Every Mr. Fixit knows that to perform the fastest, least expensive and most effective construction and repairs, you must either have the experience to do the job or be able to get guidance from those who do. The same logic is the basis for a successful partnership between NIST’s Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory, the U.S. Navy and the nation’s shipbuilders, which seeks to develop and implement improved practices and advanced technologies for the construction, repair and conversion of commercial and military ships.

Begun in 1999, the National Shipbuilding Research Program’s Advanced Shipbuilding Enterprise Initiative—a collaboration of the U.S. shipbuilding industry, academia and government agencies—has managed and focused national shipbuilding research and development funding on technologies that will reduce the cost of warships to the U.S. Navy and establish U.S. competitiveness in this field. MEL is currently involved with two NSRP ASE-funded projects: (1) a multi-shipyard effort led by the National Steel and Shipbuilding Co. in San Diego, Calif., that is developing and implementing a “world-class” manufacturing model for ship construction based upon best manufacturing practices and lean manufacturing principles, and (2) a joint effort with the Atlantic Marine Holding Co. in Mobile, Ala., that is focused on reducing cycle time and costs, as well as improving the precision and overall quality of repair and conversion processes at American shipyards, by incorporating precision metrology techniques and advanced modeling/ simulation technologies.

The first project follows a system engineering approach, supported by industrial engineering analysis and simulation modeling, to utilize and validate a selected “world-class” model. This model targets a 50 percent improvement in construction cycle time and labor cost by 2006. The second project, known as Knowledge Based Modular Repair, expects to reduce rework and costs, as well as shorten cycle times, by developing and implementing precise, effective reverse engineering techniques that will be used within a characterized and controlled manufacturing system.

For more information, contact David Stieren, (301) 975-3197. Information on NSRP projects, including the two NIST partnerships, may be found on the World Wide Web at www.nsrp.org.

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Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025

 

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Superconductivity

All About Squids ... and Their Father

Say “squid” to most people and they envision a slender sea creature with 10 arms or a calamari dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Thanks in part to James E. Zimmerman, a physicist who worked at NIST’s Boulder Laboratories from 1970 to 1985, the word SQUID—in all caps—means something entirely different to scientists. The acronym refers to a Superconducting QUantum Interference Device, a physical tool for very sensitive magnetic field measurements.

While working as a researcher at the Ford Motor Co. in the early 1960s, Zimmerman performed experiments related to quantum effects in superconductors (materials that conduct electrical current without resistance at very low temperatures). As a result, he was a co-inventor of the rf SQUID, or radio-frequency biased superconducting quantum interference device. This got Zimmerman recognized as one of the fathers of SQUID, a technology that he continued to develop at Ford and the Aeronutronics Division of Philco-Ford.

Zimmerman joined NIST’s Boulder Laboratories in 1970 where he advocated the use of Squids in metrology, geomagnetism and biomagnetism. He later focused his attention on the development of low-power, closed-cycle refrigerators called cryocoolers that were tailored to cooling Squids He retired from NIST in 1985 but continued to work as a contractor and a guest researcher for many years afterward. Zimmerman died in 1999.

To honor Zimmerman’s career, a symposium on Squids was held in his honor at the NIST Boulder Laboratories. A publication, Squids Past, Present and Future (NIST Interim Report 5095), which chronicles that symposium is now available.

NISTIR 5095 is available free of charge from Sarabeth Harris, Div. 104, NIST, Boulder, Colo. 80305-3328; (303) 497-3237. Ask for publication no. 48-00.

Media Contact:
Fred McGehan (Boulder), (303) 497-3246

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Standards

Looking for a Quality-System Registrar?

NIST’s semi-annually updated listing of North American organizations that register quality and environmental-management systems is now available over the Internet.

For each of the 96 registrars listed, entries specify the status and scope of accreditation, other types of recognition, contacts, web addresses and related items. Information was compiled from a periodic NIST survey focusing on so-called “9000 series” quality standards and on “ISO 14000,” the family of Environmental Management System standards issued by the International Organization for Standardization (known as ISO).

Using the 80-page directory, a business can identify registrars that serve its particular industry and decide whether registration by a particular organization will be honored by customers and
regulators. Increasingly, businesses require suppliers to meet quality standards. Also, regulators in export markets may waive product-certification requirements for companies whose quality systems are registered by organizations recognized as competent.

Last year, 72,000 organizations—including about 8,000 US businesses—received certificates attesting that their quality systems conform with ISO 9000. Since 1987, almost 344,000 organizations have been registered as ISO 9000 compliant. An additional number have registered their systems as conforming with different but related quality standards, such as the auto sector’s QS 9000 standard, the TL 9000 standard for telecommunications suppliers, or the aerospace sector’s AS9000 standard.

About 14,000 organizations worldwide have been registered as meeting requirements of the newer ISO 14000 series. This “generic” standard focuses on organizational and management processes to minimize harmful environmental impacts.

Available in Adobe Acrobat PDF format, Semi-Annual Listing: North American Quality System Registration Organizations (NAQSRO) (NISTIR 6515) may be downloaded from http://ts.nist.gov/ts/htdocs/210/216/iso9000.htm. For more information, contact Michael E. Squires, (301) 975-4039.

Media Contact:
Mark Bello, (301) 975-3776

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Quality

Video Shows Small Businesses Are Big on Baldrige

Small businesses are responsible for 51 percent of the US gross national product, employ 52 percent of workers, represent 96 percent of all US exporters, and provide almost 75 percent of America’s net new jobs. Keeping this segment strong and competitive is key to the US economy. Many small businesses have found that the Baldrige performance excellence criteria and the competition process for the Baldrige Award are a great way to improve performance and the bottom line.

A new 16-minute video, “Take the Journey! A Baldrige Invitation to American Small Business,” includes interviews with top executives of several of the 10 small business Baldrige Award winners explaining why the Baldrige program leads to the kind of improvements that translate into bottom-line success.

Two examples of what the small business CEOs have to say:

“The Baldrige based criteria is a very practical process that I think applies to all business, large and small. It’s about doing things that … make a lot of good common sense,” says Jerry Rose, president of Sunny Fresh Foods, a 1999 winner.

And Bruce Woolpert, president and CEO of Granite Rock Co., a 1992 winner, says, “There is no better assessment of your organization’s performance available than applying for the Award.”

The video (in either VHS or CD formats), the Baldrige performance excellence criteria and other material are available free of charge by calling (301) 975-2036 or sending e-mail to nqp@nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Jan Kosko , (301) 975-2767

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Editor: Michael Newman
HTML conversion: Crissy Robinson
Last updated:
Nov. 7, 2000
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