Office of the Director

Welcome to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). As an agency of the Department of Commerce, NIST plays a key role in enabling the hard work and innovative ideas of the American people to strengthen our infrastructure for innovation to advance manufacturing, service, and science; to promote trade; and to improve public safety and security. This leads to improved quality of life and better and more jobs.

NIST works with the private sector, other government agencies, and universities to develop and apply the technology, measurements and standards needed for new and improved products and services. In short, we help to enable the future. We encourage you to learn more about NIST's activities, how to make use of our products and services, and how to work with NIST.

NIST Director and under secretary of commerce for standards and technology

Laurie E. Locascio is the 17th director of NIST and the fourth Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology. In this role, she provides high-level oversight and direction of NIST.

Dr. Locascio most recently served as vice president for research at the University of Maryland College Park and University of Maryland Baltimore. She also served as a professor in the Fischell Department of Bioengineering at the A. James Clark School of Engineering with a secondary appointment in the Department of Pharmacology in the School of Medicine.

Before joining the University of Maryland, Dr. Locascio worked at NIST for 31 years, rising from a research biomedical engineer to eventually leading the agency’s Material Measurement Laboratory (MML). 

Read Dr. Locascio's full bio.