Patrick Gallagher, Ph.D., is the director of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the agency that promotes U.S. innovation and industrial competitiveness by advancing measurement science, standards, and technology. He also serves as Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology. Gallager has served as the deputy director of NIST and as director of NIST’s Center for Neuron Research, a national user facility for neuron scattering. Gallagher received his Ph.D. in physics from the University of Pittsburgh. His research interests include neuron and X-ray instrumentation and studies of soft condensed matter systems.