February 8, 2022

NIST Safety Commission Update

Visiting Committee on Advanced Technology

Dr. Mark Peters

Chair, NIST Safety Commission
Charge to the NIST Safety Commission

Charge to the Commission:

Assess the state of NIST’s safety culture and how effectively the existing safety 

protocols and policies have been implemented across NIST.

The Commission will evaluate:

• the quality and completeness of NIST safety directives and programs,

• the performance of safety protocols and the responses to recent incidents and near misses, and

• the impacts of the pandemic and hybrid work environment on safety.

The Commission should consider:

• perspectives of NIST staff and management, 

• NIST’s responses to significant safety-related incidents and near-misses, 

• findings from investigations and reviews of incidents, and

• implementation of corrective actions to prevent future incidents and improve safety 

performance, as well as actions taken to strengthen safety culture at NIST facilities. 
NIST Safety Commission

James P. Bagian, M.D., P.E.

Professor of Industrial and Operations 

Engineering; Co-Director, Center for Risk 

Analysis Informed Decision Engineering

University of Michigan

Darryl C. Hill, Ph.D., MBA, CSP

Senior Vice President, Safety and Security

First Group America

David A. Hofmann, Ph.D.

Hugh L. McColl Distinguished Professor of 

Leadership and Organizational Behavior,

Kenan-Flagler Business School

University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill

Craig A. Merlic, Ph.D.

Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry; Executive 

Director, The UC Center for Laboratory Safety

University of California, Los Angeles

Joseph M. Kolly, Ph.D.

Director, Transportation Innovation Center

MITRE Corporation

Allison Jones, MD, MS, 

FACOEM

Consultant, Occupational and 

Environmental Medicine

Mark Peters, Ph.D.

Executive Vice President

National Laboratory Management 

and Operations

Battelle Memorial Institute

S. Shyam Sunder, Sc.D.

(Designed Federal Official)

Director, Special Programs Office 

and Chief Data Officer

National Institute of Standards & Technology
Schedule and Deliverables

• Convene approximately three times in person over a 150-day period

 First meeting held January 4-5, 2023, in Gaithersburg, MD

 Second meeting being planned for March 9-10, 2023, in Boulder, CO

 Third meeting to be scheduled late April or early May in Gaithersburg, MD

• Preliminary oral report to NIST Director within three months 

(anticipated in late March 2023)

• Final report to NIST Director with findings and recommendations in six 

months (anticipated in June 2023)
Approach and Progress

• Briefings and Presentations by NIST Leadership 

• Focus Groups & Discussions (participation of 65-70 staff & managers at January meeting)

• Tours of NIST Laboratories and Facilities (3 lab tours at January meeting)

• Review of NIST Safety-Related Data and Documents 

NIST Director

Associate Director for Laboratory Programs

NIST Chief Safety Officer

NIST Chief Facilities Management Officer

Director, NIST Center for Neutron Research

Director, Engineering Laboratory

Laboratory Directors

Division Chiefs

Office of Occupational Safety, Health, & Environment Staff

Office of Facilities and Property Management Staff

Long Tenure Scientists

Division Safety Representatives

Early and Mid Career Scientists

Technicians

National Fire Research Laboratory

NIST Center for Neutron Research

NIST NanoFab at the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology
Next Steps

Planning for Second In-Person Commission Meeting

• Review inputs received from focus group participants and other staff, briefings and 

presentations by NIST leadership, and via safety-related data and documents

• Identify major themes around which to focus the work of the Commission

• Identify agenda topics of interest for the next meeting of the Commission in Boulder, CO

Examples of Some Additional Areas for Review 

• Results of the FY 2023 NIST Safety Culture Survey

• Reports from NRC and external consultants on unplanned shutdown of NIST Center for 

Neutron Research on 2/3/2021

• NIST root cause analysis report of tragic incident resulting in a fatality on 9/26/2022

• OSHA report of tragic incident resulting in a fatality on 9/26/2022

• Role of safety in enterprise risk management at NIST