Micheal Hicks (Fed)

Micheal serves as the Program Leader of the Office of Weights and Measures (OWM), Laboratory Metrology Program. The Laboratory Metrology Program is responsible for ensuring the traceability of state weights and measures standards to the SI and developing documentary standards and procedures to ensure uniformity among the state laboratory programs participating in the Recognition program (formerly known as the State Laboratory Program). State legal metrology laboratories are custodians at the State level of measurement standards that serve as the basis for ensuring equity in the marketplace and as reference standards for calibration services for indigenous industry. As part of its program to encourage a high degree of technical and professional competence in such activities, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Office of Weights and Measures (OWM) has developed performance standards and formalized procedures for Recognition of State legal metrology laboratories on a voluntary basis. Certificates of Metrological Traceability are issued upon evaluation of the laboratory's ability to make reliable metrological measurements (principally mass, volume, length, and temperature).

Prior to coming to NIST, Micheal served the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) as a Laboratory Manager for the National Weather Service (NWS), Sterling Field Support Center (SFSC). In this capacity, he used Metrology in the field of Meteorology and managed the quality of the Center’s thermodynamic laboratories that provided measurement traceability to the SI for over 1500 surface and upper air observing systems for the National Weather Service. Micheal has a doctoral degree in Atmospheric Science where he depended on metrology to ensure atmospheric observations were traceable to the SI for allowing the equitable analysis of weather phenomena and processes.