Michael Casassa
Michael Casassa
Dr. Michael Casassa directs the Program Office at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The NIST Program Office supports planning and management at NIST and it performs a wide variety of support activities for the NIST Director and senior leaders. Dr. Casassa and his staff conduct program, economic, and policy analyses to help guide NIST planning and decision making. One of the programmatic topics is Nanotechnology, an area in which Dr. Casassa has been involved since NIST joined the Interagency Working Group on Nano Science, Engineering, and Technology (IWGN) as a charter member in 1998. Dr. Casassa and his staff are active participants in the Nanoscale Science, Engineering, and Technology (NSET) Subcommittee of the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC), a group that succeeded the IWGN as the coordinating agency for Federal Government nanotechnology research and development. Dr. Casassa and his staff represent NIST in the National Nanotechnology Initiative, a top priority U.S. science and technology initiative started in 2001. Over the past four years, Dr. Casassa has presented numerous talks on NIST work in nanotechnology, prepared nanotechnology budget submissions, and hosted visitors who have come to NIST to see world-class nanotechnology work. Most recently, in April 2002, Dr. Casassa presented a talk on NIST nanotechnology work at the "National Nanotechnology Initiative: From Vision to Accomplishment" conference held in Washington, D.C.
Michael Casassa holds a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry from the California Institute of Technology (1984) and a B.S. in Chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh (1978). He joined the NIST staff as an NBS-NRC postdoctoral fellow in 1983 to perform research in experimental molecular dynamics. In 1993 he moved to the NIST Program Office, and served as Senior Program Analyst in 1994. In 1995 he returned to the NIST Physics Laboratory to lead the Laser Applications Group in Optical Technology Division. Dr. Casassa returned to the NIST Program Office as Acting Director in 1998.