The Korea Institute of Materials Science (KIMS), a government-funded research institute under the Ministry of Science and ICT, signed an MOU with the Materials Measurement Laboratory (MML) in the US National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST) on Friday, November 18. Both parties will cooperate for research and development in high-temperature reference materials for thermal analysis.

The Materials Measurement Laboratory (MML) is one of six laboratories conducting R&D programs in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), an agency of the US Department of Commerce. The MML comprises eight research division organizations and has about 900 researchers. As a national standard reference laboratory, it manages the development, distribution, and measurement programs of reference materials and conducts R&D in response to national issues: development of research tools to shorten the period of materials R&D and development of renewable energy sources.

Upon this opportunity for R&D cooperation, the two organizations will focus on establishing a research cooperation system to develop thermal analysis technology for high-temperature materials and standard reference materials for thermal analysis. They plan to promote (i) personnel exchanges and mutual visits for R&D in high-temperature reference materials, (ii) exchange of materials and measurement results and cross-validation of analysis methods and research results, and (iii) co-hosting of symposiums, workshops, educational programs, and discovering research topics.

Jung-hwan Lee, the President of KIMS, said, “To develop extreme environment materials and aerospace materials with improved temperature acceptance, it is urgent to secure the reliability of thermal analysis data. As it is necessary to develop a standard reference material that is more stable at high temperatures than gold (Au), which is a standard material for high-temperature thermal analysis, MML and KIMS will cooperate to develop thermal analysis technology for high-temperature materials and to develop reference materials for thermal analysis.”