Contact: Angela Hight Walker
301-975-2155
Angela Hight Walker, PML, places a sample for Raman Spectroscopic characterization. (Click image for larger version.) |
The health and safety of those involved with the development, manufacture, and use of nanotechnology products is of critical importance. The 2011 National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI) Environmental, Health, and Safety (EHS) Research Strategy is grounded in the principles of health and safety risk assessment throughout the product life cycle. Working closely within the NNI activity, NIST developed its unique multi-laboratory Nano EHS initiative, which has been funded since 2009 and led by the Materials Measurement Laboratory (MML). Angela Hight Walker, a physicist in the Semiconductor & Dimensional Metrology Division leads the Physical Measurement Laboratory (PML) team that works closely with the NIST lead, Debra Kaiser (MML), and several other principle investigators throughout the campus. ivision’s newly formed Nanoelectronics Group, Hight Walker’s primary focus is to use materials physics to provide the detailed quantitative physical-properties measurements to ensure that risk asessments related to nanomaterials are science based.
“The NIST perspective is that we want to make sure that innovation is spurred with nanotechnology and not hampered by unsubstantiated concerns, ” Hight Walker explains. “We want to make sure that companies will continue to and even accelerate bringing innovative products that leverage the wonders of nano to market by providing the measurement science to understand and mitigate any potential health and safety risks. Our goal is to provide science-based risk assessment.”