The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), known between 1901 and 1988 as the National Bureau of Standards (NBS), is a measurement standards laboratory which is a non-regulatory agency of the United States Department of Commerce. The institute's mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve quality of life.

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NIST had an operating budget for fiscal year 2007 (October 1, 2006-September 30, 2007) of about $843.3 million. NIST employs about 2,900 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support and administrative personnel. About 1,800 NIST associates (guest researchers and engineers from American companies and foreign nations) complement the staff. In addition, NIST partners with 1,400 manufacturing specialists and staff at nearly 350 affiliated centers around the country.

Facilities

NIST's headquarters are in Gaithersburg, Maryland. It also has laboratories in Boulder, Colorado. NIST has four major programs through which it helps U.S. industry: the NIST Laboratories (physics, information technology, chemical science and technology, electronics and electrical engineering, materials science and engineering, manufacturing engineering, and building and fire research); the Hollings Manufacturing Extension Partnership (HMEP), a nationwide network of centers to assist small manufacturers; the Advanced Technology Program (ATP), a grant program where NIST and industry partners cost share the early-stage development of innovative but high-risk technologies; and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award program, the nation's highest award for performance and business excellence.

NIST's Boulder laboratories are best known for NIST-F1, one of the world's two most accurate atomic clocks. (The other is in Paris, France). NIST-F1 serves as the source of the nation's official time. From its precise measurement of the natural resonance frequency of cesium—which is used to define the second —NIST broadcasts time signals via longwave radio station WWVB at Fort Collins, Colorado, and shortwave radio stations WWV and WWVH, located at Fort Collins, Colorado and Kekaha, Hawaii, respectively.

NIST's Advanced Measurement Laboratory (AML) is among the most technically advanced research facilities of its kind in the world. The AML offers American researchers opportunities to make the most sensitive and reliable measurements. This is important as new technologies become more complex and smaller.

Based in the AML is the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology (CNST). The CNST's prime objective is to lay the technical groundwork necessary to translate nanotechnology's many anticipated offerings into practical realities—manufacturable, market-ready products. To accomplish this goal, the center leverages and combines the diverse knowledge and capabilities of NIST, industry, academia, and other government agencies to support all phases of nanotechnology development. The CNST features a Nanofabrication (Nanofab) Facility. CNST's “clean room” is equipped with an array of state-of-the-art tools for making, testing, and characterizing prototype nanoscale devices and materials. These instruments will be available to collaborators and outside users through a proposal process.