Arvind Raman sworn in as NIST director a day after agency backs $20 million quantum manufacturing center
Arvind Raman took office as the 18th director of NIST on June 30, 2026, one day after the agency announced an agreement with SRI International to create a Quantum Manufacturing Engineering Center with an initial $20 million NIST investment.
Arvind Raman was sworn in on June 30, 2026, as the 18th director of the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology and the fifth under secretary of commerce for standards and technology, the agency announced. The Senate confirmed him on May 18, 2026, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick administered the oath of office in Washington, D.C. Raman takes the post in the year NIST marks its 125th anniversary.
Raman had been the John A. Edwardson Dean of the College of Engineering at Purdue University since February 2023, having joined the university as an assistant professor in 2000 and been named the Robert V. Adams Professor of Engineering in 2012, according to NIST. His research covers atomic force microscopy, human biomechanics and electronics manufacturing, and he collaborated with NIST researchers on nanotechnology from early in his career. NIST said that during his time as dean Purdue recorded its highest annual number of engineering degrees awarded and its highest number of engineering applicants, cut the average time to an engineering bachelor’s degree below four years for the first time in the university’s history while tuition remained frozen for 14 years, and entered the top four nationally in the 2026 U.S. News research rankings.
His awards include the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Gustus L. Larson Memorial Award, a Keeley Fellowship at the University of Oxford and an NSF CAREER Award. He was named a Purdue University Faculty Scholar in 2008, an ASME Fellow in 2012 and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2026. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, a master’s in mechanical engineering from Purdue and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
NIST said Raman will lead collaboration with industry, academia and other government agencies and promote research applying artificial intelligence in semiconductors, quantum computing, biotechnology and advanced manufacturing. The agency conducts research and develops standards in areas including AI, quantum technology, cybersecurity, manufacturing and biotechnology.
One day earlier, on June 29, 2026, NIST announced an agreement under which the non-profit research institute SRI International will establish a Quantum Manufacturing Engineering Center, with NIST planning an initial $20 million investment. The centre, based in Gaithersburg, Maryland, is intended to accelerate the manufacture of scalable, high-performance quantum components and systems and to advance enabling technologies such as cryogenic equipment and lasers, with applications in sensing, communications, cryptography, computing and biomedicine.
NIST said the centre implements the goals of an executive order on quantum innovation announced on June 22, 2026, and forms part of the agency’s Strategy for American Technology Leadership in the 21st Century. Deputy Secretary of Commerce Paul Dabbar and Raman both commented on its significance in the announcement. NIST said it identified quantum manufacturing engineering as a vulnerable point in the national effort through its engagement with the Quantum Economic Development Consortium and U.S. quantum companies. NIST and SRI founded QED-C in 2019 under the National Quantum Initiative Act, and the consortium now includes most major U.S. quantum technology developers along with many prospective users. The agency said it plans to use flexible public-private arrangements of this kind to develop, demonstrate and deploy results in critical and emerging technologies including AI, quantum information science and technology, and biotechnology.