The U.S. Senate this week confirmed Arvind Raman as the next director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and under secretary of commerce for standards and technology. Raman was nominated by President Trump in October 2025.
The position marks Raman’s first role in federal service. He most recently served as dean of Purdue University’s College of Engineering, where he has been a professor of mechanical engineering since 2012. While at Purdue, he also served as principal investigator and director of the LASER PULSE Consortium, a global partnership funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Raman holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi; a master’s degree from Purdue; and a doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.
Raman will replace Craig Burkhardt, who has served as acting director of NIST since January 2025.
