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Dr. S. Shyam Sunder (Fed)
Acting Associate Director of Laboratory Programs
Dr. Shyam Sunder is Acting Associate Director of Laboratory Programs (ADLP) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce. In this capacity, he provides strategic direction and operational guidance for all of NIST's scientific and technical laboratory programs.
The NIST laboratories promote U.S. innovation and international competitiveness with a focus on unleashing American innovation in critical and emerging technologies such as AI, quantum, semiconductors, next generation communications, biotechnology, advanced manufacturing and resilient systems. Founded in 1901, NIST is the national metrology institute of the United States, and the ADLP oversees core measurement capabilities to ensure that it remains among the best in the world.
Until February 2025, Dr. Sunder served as director of the Special Programs Office and acting director of the Standards Coordination Office. In these roles, he established and managed the NIST Safety Commission, which issued a comprehensive set of findings and recommendations to improve NIST’s safety culture and the effectiveness of its safety protocols. In response to the CHIPS for America Act, he led and guided NIST’s cross-laboratory team that engaged more than 800 stakeholders to assess and publish seven Grand Challenges in measurement, standardization and modeling/simulation to advance the U.S. semiconductor industry.
Dr. Sunder served as Senior Science Advisor to the Deputy Secretary of Commerce (2013-17) and Senior Science Advisor at NIST (2017-20). He provided leadership for NIST’s Return on Investment (ROI) Initiative to advance the President’s Management Agenda by assessing and accelerating the transfer of technology from lab to market, transformed the Commerce Department’s Office of the Chief Information Officer via significantly improved services and cybersecurity, and repositioned the National Technical Information Service, a Commerce bureau, to deliver data services through joint venture partnerships with the private sector.
Dr. Sunder’s prior positions include founding director of NIST’s Engineering Laboratory (2010-13), director of its Building and Fire Research Laboratory (2006-10), and chief of BFRL’s Structures and Materials Division (1998-2004). He co-chaired White House National Science and Technology Council (NSTC) panels that set the federal R&D agenda for Net-Zero Energy High-Performance Buildings (2007–11) and Cyber-Physical Systems (2012-13).
Before joining NIST in 1994, he served on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty (1981- 94). He received the Master of Science (1979) and Doctor of Science (1981) degrees from MIT, and a Bachelor of Technology with Distinction (1977) from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.
Dr. Sunder has served on national and international advisory boards, including the U.S.-India Science and Technology Endowment Fund (2020-present), ASTM International (2011-13), Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Energy and Environmental Sciences Directorate (2011-17), VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (2011-13), and National Research Council of Canada’s Institute for Research in Construction (2010-12).
Dr. Sunder is a recipient of numerous awards, including the Presidential Rank Award of Distinguished Executive (2017) and the Gold Medal Award (2005) from the U.S. Department of Commerce, its highest honor, for distinguished leadership of the federal building and fire safety investigation of the World Trade Center disaster after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. He was elected to the National Academy of Construction in 2012.