NIST Director Laurie Locascio to depart in January

National Institute of Standards and Technology Director Laurie Locascio will leave the administration in January after more than two-and-a-half years leading the standard-setting agency.

Following her departure, Locascio will join the American National Standards Institute as its president and CEO. She has served as director of NIST and undersecretary of commerce for standards and technology at the Department of Commerce since April 2022. 

In the meantime, Locascio “will continue to serve as Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director until then, providing leadership for important programs such as the CHIPS for America program and NIST’s extensive work in AI, including the U.S. AI Safety Institute,” a spokesperson for the Department of Commerce said in an emailed statement.

The news was first reported by MeriTalk.

During her tenure leading NIST, Locascio has overseen some of the Biden administration’s key efforts to regulate artificial intelligence, including setting up the AI Safety Institute and consortium and publishing the AI Risk Management Framework. She has also overseen the agency’s finalization of its first standards for post-quantum cryptography, and efforts to update its Digital Identity Guidelines.

According to an Oct. 8 announcement from ANSI, Locascio was selected by the nonprofit standards organization after a “robust search” to replace its current CEO Joe Bhatia. 

“Laurie Locascio embodies the right mix of visionary leadership, knowledge, and skills that will build on ANSI’s incredible successes and lead the Institute into the future,” Christian Dubay, chair of ANSI’s Board Search Committee, said in a statement included in the release. 

Before her most recent stint at NIST, Locascio was vice president for research at the University of Maryland College Park and the University of Maryland Baltimore, where she was also a bioengineering professor. Earlier in her career, Locascio served at NIST for 31 years as a biomedical engineer and eventually leader of the Material Measurement Laboratory.

“I have the deepest respect for ANSI, its mission, and its people having worked with the organization throughout my career,” Locascio said in a statement included in ANSI’s release. “I am thrilled to be entrusted with the leadership of this renowned institution with such incredible national and global impact.”