ME Visiting Committee Member Appointed Director of NIST Engineering Lab

In a story released by Tech Beat, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) announced Howard Harary's appointment as director of NIST's Engineering Laboratory. Harary is a member of the Department of Mechanical Engineering's Visiting Committee, and he has served on the committee during the tenure of two department chairs.

The NIST Engineering Laboratory develops the measurement tools and standards needed to support technology-intensive manufacturing, construction and cyber-physical systems. The laboratory also conducts research to reduce the risks of fire, earthquakes and other hazards.

In addition to serving as a Visiting Committee member, Harary is a member of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers Council on Standards and Certification, a member of the ASME Board on Standardization and Testing, and is the government representative to the board of PDES Inc., an industrial consortium working in the area of the digital exchange of manufacturing information.

A physicist turned measurement scientist, Harary began at NIST in 1985 as a bench scientist, focusing on challenges in measuring features on gears and other parts with complex shapes. He steadily rose through the NIST ranks, from project leader to group leader, to deputy director of the NIST Manufacturing Engineering Laboratory in 2004. Harary became the Engineering Laboratory's acting director in 2013. He also chairs an International Organization for Standardization (ISO) working group on general requirements for dimensional measuring equipment. Harary received his bachelor's degree in physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1974, and biophysics doctorate from Harvard University in 1983. He was a postdoctoral research fellow at Yale University from 1983 to 1985.

Published December 11, 2014