Founded in 1901, NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Commerce Department's Technology Administration. 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 $930 million for fiscal year 2006 and operates in two locations: Gaithersburg, Md., (headquarters - 234-hectare/578-acre campus) and Boulder Colo., (84-hectare/208-acre campus). NIST employs about 3,000 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support and administrative personnel. About 1,800 guest researchers 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 works with industry, research, and government organizations to make information technology more usable, more secure, more scalable, and more interoperable than it is today. 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 to provide computer security standards and guidelines to federal agencies for the protection of sensitive unclassified information in their IT systems and networks.

With an operating budget of approximately $87 million for fiscal year 2006, ITL has a staff of about 320 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support personnel, complemented by about 190 guest researchers, at facilities in Gaithersburg, Md. and Boulder, Colo. 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