An Assessment of the National Institute of Standards and Technology Measurement and Standards Laboratory (NIST)

At the request of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies annually carries out an assessment of the technical merit and effectiveness of the programs of the seven NIST Measurements and Standards Laboratories (MSL). In addition, the NRC examines the relevance of the NIST’s programs and how well its facilities, equipment, and personnel are able to fulfill its mission. This report presents the result of this review. An overall assessment of the MSL is presented followed by summary assessments of the seven laboratories. The report then presents detailed division-level reviews of each laboratory.

Maintaining High Scientific Quality at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (DEPS)

In recent years, there has been concern about security and operations management at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories (LANL and LLNL). As a result, Congress directed the Department of Energy (DOE) to hold open competitions for the management and operations (M&O) contracts for both LANL and LLNL. The quality of the scientific programs, however, did not appear to be a factor in that action, and the DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) wanted to ensure that the contract competitions preserve the high-quality science and engineering currently being performed at the labs. It asked the NRC to recommend how best the NNSA can create meaningful qualification and selection discriminators to help ensure world-class scientific quality is maintained in programs and activities at LANL and LLNL. This report presents those recommendations along with other important factors that should be considered in developing the request for proposals for the upcoming contract competition.

Report Summary