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Photos of Marc Levitan and Long Phan are part of a collage of tornado images labeled: Tornado Resiliency Building Code Research

NIST Research Is Setting the Standard to Help Buildings Withstand Tornadoes

May 6, 2024

Two NIST researchers have been recognized for their work to create new standards for buildings that can better withstand tornadoes.

A man in safety gear crouches to examine a damaged wall inside a building after an earthquake.

The Highs and Lows of Studying the Aftermath of One of Turkey’s Deadliest Earthquakes

October 16, 2023

Matthew Speicher

Our goal at NIST is to not only document and learn from disasters, but to also spur innovation and make recommendations to help lessen the impact of the next disaster.

Collage includes four historical photos of Black men in military and office attire on background of gold, green, black and red.

From the Space Shuttle to Structural Engineering, NIST’s Tuskegee Airmen Left a Lasting Legacy in Service and Science

February 3, 2023

Megan King

Four of these men are now known to have continued their careers at NBS, though colleagues at the time didn’t know about their co-workers’ historic past.

A white telescope dish is surrounded by wooded mountains in autumn colors.

In Case You Missed It From NIST: 2021 Edition

December 8, 2021

While the pandemic still grips the world, researchers at NIST continue their work on COVID-19 related research, as well as the wide range of other science and technology topics NIST is known for. We have pulled together a selection of stories, videos and other content from around NIST to let you see

multi panel collage of the robocrane, a large three sided pyramid structure of struts and wires holding a platform in the middle. To the right are images of the robocrane welding, joining pipes and cutting an I beam.

Creating and Commercializing the NIST RoboCrane

October 27, 2021

Nicholas G. Dagalakis

The RoboCrane — now hard at work at the Chernobyl and Fukushima nuclear cleanup sites — is a good example of a successfully commercialized technology invented at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). I’ll try to tell that story in this blog. In the early 1980s, the manufacturing

white office building with a wedge top among other skyscrapers

Blown Away: Revisiting a Famous Engineering Case

June 19, 2019

Dat Duthinh

One of the undergraduate engineering courses that left a deep and lasting impression on me was a course on innovation and aesthetics in engineering taught by David Billington at Princeton University. So, when I read the story of a skyscraper in New York City that had to undergo secret emergency

Satellite photo of Hurricane Harvey making landfall on the Texas Gulf Coast

Before the Storm: Measuring and Predicting Hurricanes

May 24, 2018

Scott Weaver

The Atlantic hurricane season is now upon us, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has just released its 2018 seasonal hurricane outlook, which calls for a slightly above average season. The potential range of activity indicates that we could expect 10 to 16 named storms

Men working at construction site with wood planks on ground and gray house dangling in air by crane

Building Codes, Planning Key to Community Resilience

September 21, 2016

Dominic Sims

“Buildings built to the most modern building codes were the safest places to be during Hurricane Sandy.” Having spent most of my life in code enforcement, I’ve known this to be fact and have seen the evidence with my own eyes. But hearing New York City Chief Resilience Officer Daniel Zarrilli say it

Photo of damage from 2011 Joplin, Mo, tornado

Resilience Rises from Tragedy in Joplin

May 31, 2016

Marc Levitan

The May 22, 2011, tornado in Joplin, Mo., rated an EF-5—the most powerful ranking—on the Enhanced Fujita tornado intensity scale. It caused 161 fatalities and more than 1,000 injuries, making it the deadliest single tornado in the U.S. since we began keeping official records in 1950. With losses

Taking Measure Blog Posts

Structural engineering

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