Gaithersburg Man Honored for Distinguished Science Writing

Neil M. Zimmerman, has received the 2000 Edward Uhler Condon Award from the National Institute of Standards and Technology, an agency of the Commerce Department's Technology Administration. Zimmerman is a project leader in the NIST Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory.

Zimmerman, along with three colleagues at NIST's Boulder, Colo., laboratories, is being recognized for the paper, "A Capacitance Standard Based on Counting Electrons." The paper, which appeared in the Sept. 10, 1999, issue of Science, describes the development of the first working prototype of a new standard for measuring the storage of electrical energy—known as capacitance—based on a means of manipulating and counting electrons one at a time. Eventually, the system should be much simpler to use and faster than the present technology used to set a recognized standard for capacitance.

Established in 1974, the Condon Award recognizes distinguished achievement in written exposition in science or technology.

As a non-regulatory agency of the U.S. Department of Commerce's Technology Administration, NIST strengthens the U.S. economy and improves the quality of life by working with industry to develop and apply technology, measurements and standards through four partnerships: the Measurement and Standards Laboratories, the Advanced Technology Program, the Manufacturing Extension Partnership and the Baldrige National Quality Program.