Ernest Ambler (November 20, 1923 – February 17, 2017) 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 Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

, England, in 1923. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oxford and went on to earn a

D.Phil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

degree in 1953 from the same institution.

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 ) , spouse = , residence = , nationality = ChineseAmerican , field = Physics , work_institutions = Institute of Physics, Academia SinicaUniversity of California at BerkeleySmith CollegePrinceton UniversityColumbia UniversityZhejiang Unive ...

on what became the Wu experiment. He was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1962. He elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1958. Ambler-Ernest006

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. 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 Calvin William Verity Jr. (January 26, 1917 – January 3, 2007) was an American government official and steel industrialist who served as the 27th United States secretary of commerce between 1987 and 1989, under President Ronald Reagan. Early ...

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.

Personal life

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

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ambler, Ernest Fellows of the American Physical Society NIST Directors Scientists from Bradford American physicists Alumni of the University of Oxford United States Department of Commerce officials 1923 births 2017 deaths British emigrants to the United States Recipients of the Order of Civil Merit (Korea) English physicists Recipients of the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service Naturalized citizens of the United States