Commerce Department

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) was founded in 1901 as the National Bureau of Standards and was renamed in 1988. In addition to its traditional role as developer and protector of national standards of measurement, the institute has increasingly been called upon to help industry to use technology to improve product quality and reliability, improve manufacturing processes, and more rapidly bring to market products that use new scientific discoveries. The NIST administers the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, first established in 1987, which recognizes outstanding quality achievement in business. The institute operates a world-class center in Boulder, Colorado, for science and engineering research, including research in the fields of chemistry, physics, electronics, materials science, computing, and mathematics. Its headquarters is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland.