American Physical Society Organizes Effort to Preserve NIST Laboratories

On Monday this week, The American Physical Society held a press conference to release two letters calling on Members of Congress to maintain funding for the laboratory program of the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Congress is now considering legislation to dismantle the Commerce Department.

The first letter was signed by twenty-five recipients of the Nobel Prize in Physics. It concluded:

“Measurements and standards techniques from the NIST laboratories have been estimated to save the nation billions of dollars annually through their use in industries such as electrical power, semiconductor manufacturing, medical, agricultural, food processing, and building materials. The loss of these laboratories would be a serious blow to our long-term technological capability and to our national enterprise in basic research. We urge you to make every possible effort to preserve this national treasure.”

The second letter was signed by representatives of eighteen major scientific societies. Included in this letter’s signatories are the following Member Society presidents: Kumar Patel, The American Physical Society; Robert E. Apfel, Acoustical Society of America; Guy Simmons, American Association of Physicists in Medicine; Hugo Steinfink, American Crystallographic Association; John Weaver, American Vacuum Society and Roland W. Schmitt, Chair of the American Institute of Physics Governing Board. The letter is as follows:

“As presidents and directors of professional societies representing more than 1,000,000 experts in engineering and in the mathematical, physical, and medical sciences and with concern for the strength of the nation’s scientific enterprise, we urge you to maintain federal support for the laboratories of the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

“The NIST laboratories uniquely serve the broad scientific and technical community. Scientists and engineers from nearly every state in the country come to the NIST laboratories to carry out their research. Consequently, the NIST laboratories have a strong record of contributing to the nation’s technological and scientific competitiveness and are a crucial component of the nation’s long-term basic research.

“We recognize that your efforts to balance the budget is forcing tough choices regarding the Department of Commerce. However, the laboratories operated by NIST and funded by the Department of Commerce are a vital scientific resource for the nation and should be preserved in the process of downsizing the federal government.”