Dr. Kristan Corwin will present her topic in person.

Abstract: National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a federal agency, helps the nation and the world precisely realize the duration of a second, the mass of a kilogram, and the quantity of a gallon of gas. Home to the atomic clock, NIST is responsible for disseminating the Système Internationale (SI), a system of units agreed to by international treaty. In 2019, the SI was redefined based entirely on natural physical constants, removing all human artifacts. In this lecture, I’ll describe the history and role of NIST, both in disseminating the SI and in research in critical and emerging technologies.
Research at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is continually advancing the nation’s capability to provide the highest-accuracy, most trusted measurements available. NIST scientists are finding better ways to measure laser power, from single photons to 100 kW’s, using carbon nanotubes and harnessing the information in photon momentum. Radiometry and spectroscopy also improve space and ground-based measurements for climate monitoring. At the faintest light levels (single photons), NIST’s detectors are some of the most efficient in the world, opening applications from quantum computing with light, to imaging faint light from distant galaxies. Quantum information research in entangled photons and superconducting qubits fuels the nascent quantum industry. Semiconductor research in the division is helping the nation meets the priorities laid out in the CHIPS for America Act, and our work provides quantitative measurements for the medical field, including phantoms for Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Optical Coherence Tomography.
Please join me in discovering how NIST’s trusted measurements shape our world.