President Donald Trump has nominated Arvind Raman to be the next director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the under secretary of commerce for standards and technology.
Raman currently serves as the dean of Purdue University’s College of Engineering and has worked there as a professor of mechanical engineering since 2012.
While working at Purdue, Raman served as the principal investigator and director of the LASER PULSE Consortium, which is a global partnership funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development to deliver demand-driven research and technical assistance to solve development challenges in low- and middle-income countries.
Other roles Raman has held at Purdue, according to his LinkedIn profile, include the associate dean for global engineering programs and the executive associate dean of the Purdue College of Engineering.
Raman does not appear to have held any roles in the federal government.
The nominee will require confirmation by the Senate to begin his role and would join at a time when NIST is navigating the future of programs funded by the CHIPS and Science Act.
Currently, Craig Burkhardt is serving as the acting director of NIST.
Raman received a degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; his master’s degree from Purdue; and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.