Office of Data and Informatics | NIST
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Material Measurement Laboratory

Office of Data and Informatics

NIST's Office of Data and Informatics is a premier, pioneering resource for researchers and institutions in the physical sciences with domain expertise in biological, chemical, and materials sciences, specializing in large and information-rich data sets now common in many disciplines.

The ODI provides leadership and expertise to meet modern data challenges and leverage data-driven research opportunities for the Materials Measurement Laboratory and NIST scientific research data infrastructure.   As a service-oriented organization, the ODI contributes scientific value to research by providing guidance in best practices and resources which optimize the discoverability, usability, and interoperability of data products in ways that support NIST scientists and stakeholders.   ODI fosters collaboration and coordination among MML laboratory domain experts and other data specialists at NIST.  In addition, the ODI supports development of research programs where advanced manipulation, visualization, and analysis of large data sets are needed to advance knowledge.

The ODI supports National programs such as the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI),  and is internationally engaged with partner institutions and organizations in emerging data science strategic areas such as Big Data and Artificial Intelligence.   ODI manages the technical program for the  NIST reference data services, facilitating use and modernization toward state-of-the-art computer paradigms (i.e., virtual computing, parallel analysis, interoperability, semantic web, etc.) and the development of next generation NIST reference data services. 

News and Updates

120 Years of Data at NIST

In celebration of the 50 th anniversary of the founding of the Journal of Physical and Chemical Reference Data (JPCRD), two NIST scientists have published a
MML Measures Up logo on data diagram

Strength in Numbers

NIST is building an infrastructure for advanced data integration and management that promotes scientific innovation in the biological, chemical, and materials

Projects and Programs

MGI goals

Materials Informatics

Ongoing
To develop the need data infrastructure and informatics tools, NIST is focusing on three areas: data curation, data infrastructure, and data access. Data curation efforts include efforts to develop a phase-based materials ontology to ensure that the data is represented in a semantically
A line drawing of a woman's head styled like a classical carved bust

METIS

Ongoing
A Metrology Exchange to Innovate in Semiconductors

NIST Materials Resource Registry

Ongoing
The MRR is a comprehensive inventory of high-level data collections, repositories, databases, tools, software, and services useful to materials research and design but located anywhere in the world. Its specialization for Materials Science is in the domain-specific metadata and vocabulary it can

Ontologies and Interoperability in Evolutionary Comparative Analysis

Completed
Intended impact Nearly all scientists who regularly use online resources on genes, proteins and genomes make use of comparative data to advance biomedical research. For instance, researchers often make useful inferences by comparing human genes (as well as proteins, reactions, interactions, pathways

Awards