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Materials Science

NIST to Launch Combinatorial Methods Center

This coming January, NIST will launch an important resource for those using combinatorial approaches to characterize and develop new materials—a collaborative research center devoted to advancing state-of-the-art
methods that can rapidly accelerate the effort.

The inaugural meeting for the new NIST Combinatorial Methods Center, to be based at NIST’s Gaithersburg, Md., campus, will be held on Jan. 23, 2002, in conjunction with the Combi 2002 conference in San Diego.

At the NCMC kick-off meeting, NIST materials scientists will explain the structure, functions and capabilities of the new center. They also will describe opportunities to participate in center efforts to develop research tools, data libraries, and methods for efficient storage, retrieval and use of information—all aimed at speeding materials characterization. The range of topics to be addressed will be broad ranging, from polymers to biomaterials to inorganic materials.

In contrast to traditional, “one-at-a-time” testing of properties, combinatorial methods allow researchers to explore, simultaneously or in rapid sequence, combinations of materials characteristics and formulations on a miniaturized scale. These still-evolving methods enable researchers to quickly evaluate how variables such as thickness, process temperature and composition influence a material’s performance. With combinatorial tools, they can pinpoint optimal processing conditions, screen for novel properties and build comprehensive data sets for constructing predictive models.

The NCMC will concentrate on devising and testing emerging high-throughput approaches to investigate chemical and physical properties, structural features and processing requirements critical for development of promising new materials.

Detailed information on the NCMC, including registration for the first meeting in January 2002, may be found at www.nist.gov/combi. To learn about the Combi 2002 conference, go to www.knowledgefoundation.com. For more on NIST’s combinatorial methods efforts, send an electronic mail message to Alamgir Karim at combi@nist.gov.

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

 

Honors

NIST Scientists Named Fellows of AAAS

Two NIST researchers—Charles W. Clark and Johanna M.H. Levelt Sengers—have been awarded the distinction of Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. They will be honored in a ceremony at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston on Feb. 16, 2002.

Clark, chief of the Electron and Optical Physics Division of NIST’s Physics Laboratory, was recognized “for exceptional contributions in theoretical physics applied to diverse systems, including hugely excited atoms and many-body phenomena of gaseous Bose-Einstein condensates.” Levelt Sengers, a NIST Fellow Emeritus in the agency’s Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory, was recognized “for groundbreaking contributions to the understanding of the universality of critical phenomena and for wide application of this understanding to systemization of thermophysical properties of complex systems.”

AAAS is the world’s largest general science organization and publisher of the peer-reviewed journal Science. With more than 138,000 members and 275 affiliated societies, AAAS serves as an authoritative source for information on the latest developments in science and bridges gaps among scientists, policy makers and the public to advance science and science education.

Media Contact:
Michael E. Newman, (301) 975-3025

 

Fire Research

First Report on Sublethal Effects of Smoke Available

Fire survivors know that “Smoke Gets in Your Eyes” is more than a Broadway show-stopping song; in fires, it’s a life-stopping threat. Smoke inhalation is the leading cause of U.S. fire deaths. Even exposure to smoke in less-than-deadly amounts can be harmful to fire fighters and occupants of buildings, airplanes, etc. Additionally, it may cause someone to choose a dangerous escape route, reduce his or her escape speed, or even render a person unable to escape (incapacitation). Under industrial support through the National Fire Protection Association’s Fire Protection Research Foundation, a NIST and NFPA fire safety research team recently published the first progress report of a multiyear initiative to define what is known about these sublethal effects of smoke.

Richard Gann of NIST’s Building and Fire Research Laboratory and project director said, “Fire risk and hazard analyses that underestimate smoke effects can result in less-than-the-intended degree of public safety. On the other hand, overestimation can bias the distribution and regulation of construction and furnishing materials, constrain and distort building design options, and drive up construction costs. Sound scientific information on this topic can only help product manufacturers, public policy makers and the American population as a whole.”

The report, International Study of the Sublethal Effects of Fire Smoke on Survival and Health: Phase I Final Report (NIST Technical Note 1439), includes the first estimates of the magnitude and impact of sublethal exposures to fire smoke on people in the United States; an evaluation of the best available lethal and incapacitation values for smoke; the first methodology for relating smoke lethality data for laboratory rats to incapacitation data for people; a look at how various sizes of fires may produce smoke yields leading to sublethal health effects; and state-of-the-art information on the production of the condensed components of smoke from fires and their changes during transport from the fire. The report also identifies further smoke research needed to improve the quality of fire hazard and risk assessment.

NIST Technical Note 1439 is available for downloading at www.bfrl.nist.gov/top/Whats_new.htm (web address is case sensitive). Contact Gann at (301) 975-6866 or richard.gann@nist.gov for project information.

Media Contact:
John Blair, (301) 975-4261

 

 

Metric

NIST Releases New U.S. Edition of International Guide

NIST has issued a new American edition of the international standard reference guide to the International System of Units (known as SI from the French “Le Système International d’Unités”), the modern metric system. The 2001 volume is the U.S. English version of the seventh international edition of the guide published in 1998 by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (known as BIPM).

NIST Special Publication 330, edited by Barry N. Taylor, incorporates supplements to the seventh international edition published by the BIPM in June 2000. The American text includes full technical definitions of the official SI units, historical notes on the development of the present-day definitions and brief descriptions of some important units. In addition, the NIST version includes Americanized spellings ( for example, “meter” rather than “metre”) and special notes concerning U.S. metric use.

The Omnibus Trade and Competitiveness Act of 1988 designates “the metric system of measurement as the preferred system of weights and meas-ures for United States trade and commerce.” The new NIST guide reflects the most recent interpretations of SI for the United States by the Secretary of Commerce, as published in the Federal Register of July 28, 1998. The Secretary of Commerce has delegated his authority to interpret or modify the SI for American use to the director of NIST. NIST coordinates the federal government policy on the conversion to SI by federal agencies and on the use of SI by U.S. industry.

The 2001 edition of The International Systems of Units (SI) (NIST Special Publication 330) is available online at http://physics.nist.gov/Pubs/SP330/sp330.pdf. Single copies are available from the Metric Program, NIST, 100 Bureau Dr., Stop 2000, Gaithersburg, Md. 20899-2000; (301) 975-3690; fax: (301) 948-1416; metric_prg@nist.gov.

Media Contact:
John Blair, (301) 975-4261

 

 

Standards

Proceedings Available from IT Standards and Innovation Conference

The 2nd IEEE Conference on Standardization and Innovation in Information Technology (known as SIIT2001) was held at the University of Colorado at Boulder on Oct. 3-6, 2001, bringing many of the world’s standards experts together with key industry standardization leaders. The proceedings from the conference are now available from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers web site at http://shop.ieee.org/store (order IEEE product no. EX530-TBR). Details on the meeting, as well as downloadable video of all presentations, may be found on the conference web site at http://siit2001.org.

SIIT 2001 explored standardization and innovation in information technology in seven areas: computers and communication, standards as a discipline, standardization as a process, law and government, economics, social sciences and education. It was co-sponsored by the IEEE Microwave Theory and Techniques Society and NIST. The International Center for Standards Research at CU-Boulder organized the event.

Among the presenters at SIIT 2001 were Houlin Zhao, director of the International Telecommunications Union’s Telecommunication Standardization Bureau; Scott Bradner, leader of the Internet Engineering Task Force; Jim Carlo, chair of the IEEE 802 LAN/MAN Standards Committee; Carl Cargill, director of standards at Sun Microsystems; Ambassador Gail Schoettler, the former Colorado lieutenant governor who headed the U.S. delegation to the 2000 World Radiocommunication Conference; and Roger Marks, director of the National Wireless Electronics Systems Testbed.

For more information, contact Roger Marks, (303) 497-3037, marks@boulder.nist.gov.

Media Contact:
Collier Smith (Boulder), (303) 497-3198

 

 

Chemistry

New Publication Explores Challenges to Thermophysical Researchers

In June 2000, NIST played a major role in convening the Fourteenth Symposium on Thermophysical Properties in Boulder, Colo. Because it was the last symposium to be held in the 20th century, a special session—called Forum 2000—was held to review the progress of thermophysics over the last 100 years and use this knowledge to predict the future of thermophysics in the next century. A special publication has just been released, which documents this special forum.

Seven distinguished experts presented overviews of topical issues in the field, including simulation versus experimentation, thermophysical properties needed for new micro technologies, thermophysical properties associated with nuclear waste cleanup, data needs for electrolyte systems and new generations of electric power plants, and data needs for unconventional materials such as molten metals and soft solids. Also included in the report are 13 brief, invited essays on issues raised in the forum by panelists, audience participants and other experts in thermophysics.

An Adobe Acrobat version of the special publication can be downloaded at http://Forum2000.Boulder.NIST.Gov/F2kSP.pdf (web address is case sensitive). Paper copies of Report on Forum 2000: Fluid Properties for New Technologies - Connecting Virtual Design with Physical Reality (NIST Special Publication 975) may be obtained from Sarabeth Harris, NIST, MC104, Boulder, Colo., 80305-3328; (303) 497-3237; sarabeth@boulder.nist.gov.

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