NIST Gallery of Distinguished Alumni

The NIST Portrait Gallery of Distinguished Alumni honors NBS/NIST alumni for outstanding career contributions to the work of NBS/NIST. Portraits and biographies of those selected are displayed in the corridor of the NIST cafeteria at Gaithersburg. An updated digital archives kiosk for Gaithersburg and for Boulder, as well as a physical location for portraits in Boulder are awaiting procurement actions by the NIST Public Affairs Office. 

The most recent list of Portrait Gallery honorees is available at 2025 Portrait Gallery Honorees. The Ceremony, originally scheduled for October 2025 was unable to be held because of the Government shutdown. 

Please mark your calendar for the virtual  2025 Portrait Gallery Ceremony, on Friday, January 23, 2026, beginning at 11 am EST,  9 am MST.

Registration is open at https://events.nist.gov/profile/39844.   Your registration will be confirmed via an email that will provide the link to participate in this event. The Program Brochure for the ceremony is available here: (2025 NIST Gallery of Distinguished Alumni Program Brochure).  

Any current or former NBS/NIST staff member may nominate a candidate for the Portrait Gallery. Nominations are welcome for alumni.

Candidates who have been nominated in previous years, but not selected, may be nominated again, but no candidate may be nominated in more than two successive years. For example, candidates may again be nominated in a fourth year or later, so long as they are not nominated in more than two successive years. Re-submission should be seen as an opportunity for the nominator to improve the nomination of a worthy candidate.

Nomination instructions and an example are available from the SAA website. Please address questions to the Standards Alumni Association at portrait_gallery [at] standardsalumni.org (portrait_gallery[at]standardsalumni[dot]org) or the Portrait Gallery Committee at bjlide [at] gmail.com (bjlide[at]gmail[dot]com).  Nominations shall be received by the Standards Alumni Association on or before the March 4, 2026 deadline.

Past honorees are listed is this document: Portrait Gallery honorees through 2025 (PDF), as well as in the NIST Digital Archives.