Acting Director Hratch Semerjian

Hratch Semerjian is serving as acting director of NIST while Arden Bement serves in a temporary capacity as the acting director of the National Science Foundation. Dr. Semerjian has served as the Deputy Director of NIST since July 2003. In this position, Dr. Semerjian is responsible for overall operation of the Institute, including financial management, human resource management, facilities, and information technology systems, effectiveness of NIST's technical programs, and for interactions with international organizations. NIST has a total budget of about $773 million, and a permanent staff of about 3,000, as well as about 1,800 guest researchers from industry, academia, and other national metrology institutes from more than 40 countries. Most of the NIST researchers are located in two major campuses in Gaithersburg, Md., and Boulder, Colo. NIST also has two joint research institutes; the oldest of these is JILA, a collaborative research program with the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the other is CARB (Center for Advanced Research in Biotechnology), a partnership with the University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute.

Dr. Semerjian received his M.Sc. (1968) and Ph.D. (1972) degrees in engineering from Brown University. He served as a lecturer and post doctoral research fellow in the Chemistry Department at the University of Toronto. He then joined the research staff of Pratt & Whitney Aircraft Division of United Technologies Corp. in East Hartford, Conn. In 1977, Dr. Semerjian joined the National Bureau of Standards (now NIST), where he served as Director of the Chemical Science and Technology Laboratory (CSTL) from April 1992 through July 2003. As Director of CSTL, he was responsible for an annual budget of about $60 million and 450 staff in chemical engineering, biotechnology, analytical chemistry, process technology, and physical chemistry research activities. Awards he has received include the Fulbright Fellowship, C.B. Keen Fellowship at Brown, the U.S. Department of Commerce Meritorious Federal Service (Silver Medal) Award in 1984, and the U.S. Department of Commerce Distinguished Achievement in Federal Service (Gold Medal) Award in 1995; he was also selected as the DoC "Federal Engineer of the Year" in 1991. In 1996, he was elected a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In 1997, he received the Brown Engineering Alumni Medal. Dr. Semerjian was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 2000.