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Environment

Through its partnerships with industry, government, and academia, NIST is helping to advance measurements and tools for environmental science, for example by calibrating the sensors of climate-mapping satellites and detecting ever more minute quantities of toxins and pollutants in our air, soil, water and blood.

The Research

Projects & Programs

Plastic Pollution Measurement Science

Ongoing
Plastic pollution is a complex mixture of various types of plastics with different shapes and chemical additives. From microscopic nanoplastics (as small as 1 nm) to large megaplastics (over 1 m), plastic pollution poses significant measurement science challenges. By developing accurate methods for

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS)

Ongoing
Perfluorinated and polyfluorinated alkyl substances (PFAS) constitute a family of compounds that are distinguished by partial or complete fluorination of alkyl hydrocarbons. Dubbed “forever chemicals”, the unique chemistry of PFAS imparts a high level of stability, making the compounds resistant to

Fundamental Guided Wave Metrology

Ongoing
The science of microwave measurements is expanding in many different directions. There is a constant push to use higher frequencies. Signals are becoming much more complex and include modulation effects, multiport/differential signals, complex waveforms, and other unusual signal schemes. On-wafer

Additional Resources Links

News

Tracking Hormones on Land and at Sea

It’s usually pretty straightforward to explain how my work on clinical measurements is a benefit to society, but sometimes I get confused looks when I tell people about my work on whales, alligators and fish, to name a few. At the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), I work on measurement science for endocrinology. Endocrinology is the science of hormones such as the commonly

Biden-Harris Administration to Invest up to $100 Million to Accelerate R&D and AI Technologies for Sustainable Semiconductor Materials

NIST Funds Climate Measurements Center of Excellence at the University of Vermont

NIST Participates in White House Summit on Standards for Critical and Emerging Technology

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