Founded in 1901, NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Department of Commerce. NIST'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 our quality of life. NIST carries out its mission in four cooperative programs:

• the NIST Laboratories, conducting research that advances the nation's technology infrastructure and is needed by U.S. industry to continually improve products and services;
• the Baldrige National Quality Program, which promotes performance excellence among U.S. manufacturers, service companies, educational institutions, and health care providers; conducts outreach programs and manages the annual Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award which recognizes performance excellence and quality achievement;
• the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a nationwide network of local centers offering technical and business assistance to smaller manufacturers; and
• the Advanced Technology Program, which accelerates the development of innovative technologies for broad national benefit by co funding R&D partnerships with the private sector.

NIST has an operating budget of about $843 million for fiscal year 2007 and operates primarily in two locations: Gaithersburg, Md., (headquarters - 234-hectare/578-acre campus) and Boulder Colo., (84-hectare/208-acre campus). NIST employs about 2,900 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support and administrative personnel. About 1,800 guest researchers and other NIST associates complement the staff.

NIST/Information Technology Laboratory (ITL)
ITL is one of the measurement and standards laboratories of NIST. ITL’s mission is to promote U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology in information technology in ways that enhance economic security and improve our quality of life. ITL formulates metrics, tests, and tools for a wide range of subjects such as information complexity and comprehension, high confidence software, space-time coordinated mobile and wireless computing, as well as issues of information quality, integrity, and usability. ITL develops the tests and test methods that both the developers and the users of the technology need to objectively measure, compare, and improve their systems. For many years, ITL has been mandated by legislation, most recently the Federal Information Security Management Act, to develop cybersecurity standards, guidelines, and associated tools and techniques for the protection of sensitive unclassified information in federal IT systems and networks.

With an operating budget of approximately $85 million for fiscal year 2007, ITL has a staff of about 328 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support personnel, complemented by about 132 guest researchers, at facilities in Gaithersburg, Maryland and Boulder, Colorado. The ITL website is http://www.itl.nist.gov.

News and general information about NIST programs and services are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.nist.gov, or by calling General Inquiries at (301) 975-NIST (975-6478), TTY (301) 975-8295 or e-mail: inquiries@nist.gov.

http://www.nist.gov