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Ernest Ambler
Ernest Ambler
	an official U.S. government portrait of Ernest Ambler
8th Director of the National Bureau of Standards
	In office; 1977–1989
President	Jimmy Carter
Preceded by	Richard W. Roberts
Succeeded by	John W. Lyons
Personal details
Born	November 20, 1923; Bradford, England, UK
Died	February 17, 2017 (aged 93); Hilton Head, South Carolina, US
Citizenship	British; American;
Spouse	Alice Virginia Seiler
Children	two sons
Alma mater	University of Oxford
Awards	President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service; Order of Civil Merit (Korea)
	Scientific career
Fields	Physics
Institutions	National Bureau of Standards

Ernest Ambler (November 20, 1923 – February 17, 2017^[1]) was a British-American physicist who served as the Acting Under Secretary for Technology in the Department of Commerce (1988–89), as director of the United States' National Bureau of Standards (NBS, 1975–89), and as the first director of the United States' National Institute of Standards and Technology 1988–89.

Early life and education

Ernest Ambler was born in Bradford, England, in 1923. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oxford and went on to earn a D.Phil degree in 1953 from the same institution.^[2]^[3]

Career

In 1953 Ambler began work in the Cryogenic Physics Section of the United States' National Bureau of Standards, becoming section chief in 1961. In his early years at the NBS, Ambler was principal collaborator with Chien-Shiung Wu on what became the Wu experiment. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962.^[4]^[2]^[5] He elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1958.^[6]

Ernest Ambler is presented with the medal and diploma of the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service in 1977.

In 1973 Ambler was appointed deputy director of the NBS and, in 1975, served with NBS director Richard W. Roberts as the U.S. delegation to the 15th General Conference on Weights and Measures in France. Ambler assumed the position of acting director in 1975, following the departure of Roberts. In 1977 he was nominated to the office of Director of the National Bureau of Standards by President Jimmy Carter and was confirmed to the post by the U.S. Senate the following year.^[3]^[7]^[8]

Ambler presided over the 1988 change of the NBS to the National Institute of Standards and Technology and became the first director of the new agency. Though he had announced his decision to retire effective April 1989, he agreed to a request by United States Secretary of Commerce William Verity to remain as director through the end of the year and to also accept appointment, on an acting basis, to the newly created position of Under Secretary for Technology in the Department of Commerce.^[9]^[8]^[2]

Personal life

Ambler was naturalized as a United States citizen in 1957.^[3] With his wife, Alice Virginia Seiler, he had two sons. He died at Hilton Head, South Carolina after a brief illness.

References

^ "Dr. Ernest Ambler Obituary, Hilton Head Island, SC | The Island Funeral Home & Crematory, Hilton Head Island, Okatie, South Carolina". www.theislandfuneralhome.com. Archived from the original on 22 March 2018. Retrieved 22 March 2018.
^ ^a ^b ^c "The Fall of Parity Photo Gallery with Short Biographies". NIST. National Institute of Standards and Technology. 28 April 2015. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
^ ^a ^b ^c "National Bureau of Standards Nomination of Ernest Ambler To Be Director". American Presidency Project. University of California at Santa Barbara. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
^ "ERNEST AMBLER". gf.org. John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
^ Chiang, Tsai-Chien (2013). Madame Wu Chien-Shiung: The First Lady of Physics Research. World Scientific. p. 129. ISBN 978-9814579131.
^ "Fellow Archive". American Physical Society.
^ "Senate Rejects Few Carter Appointments". Congressional Quarterly. 1978. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
^ ^a ^b Schooley, James (2000). Responding to National Needs (PDF). U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 210–215.
^ "Directors of the National Bureau of Standards (1901–1988) and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (1988–present)". NIST. National Institute of Standards and Technology. 16 March 2010. Retrieved 20 December 2016.

Government offices
Preceded by Richard W. Roberts	8th Director of the National Bureau of Standards (agency renamed NIST in 1988) 1977 – 1989	Succeeded by John W. Lyons as Director of NIST