Ray Kammer, NIST Director 1997-2000
Credit: NIST
Ray Kammer, who as director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) led a successful push to modernize the agency’s laboratory facilities, died June 18 in Alpharetta, Georgia. He was 76 years old.
President Bill Clinton appointed Kammer to be the 11th director of NIST in 1997. Kammer started his 31-year federal career in 1969, soon after graduating from the University of Maryland, when he was hired as program analyst at the National Bureau of Standards, as the agency was then known.
Before serving as director, Kammer was deputy director twice, from 1980 to 1991 and again from 1993 to 1997. He also served on an acting basis at NIST’s parent agency, the Department of Commerce, as chief financial officer, assistant secretary for administration and chief information officer. From 1991 to 1993 he served as chief operating officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which is also part of the Department of Commerce, where he led efforts to modernize the agency’s weather satellite systems.
A particularly formative experience came early in his career. While still an analyst with NIST’s Program Coordination Office, Kammer accepted a temporary assignment working with the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations. While there, he gained expertise with the federal budget process and developed relationships with key members of Congress and congressional staffers that would prove valuable throughout his career.
Ray Kammer, right, with NIST scientist Bill Phillips on Oct. 17, 1997, the day Phillips was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.
Credit: NIST
Kammer served his second stint as NIST deputy director under Arati Prabhakar, now the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
“Ray Kammer brought calm and order t ..
Support the originator by clicking the read the rest link below.
