Laurie Locascio, former vice president for research at the University of Maryland, has assumed leadership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology nearly two weeks after the Senate approved her nomination.

As, NIST’s 17th director, she will provide guidance for the agency’s collaboration with the government, commercial and academic sectors to incorporate standards, technology and measurements into product and service innovation, the agency said Tuesday.

Locascio will also hold the title of undersecretary of commerce for standards and technology.

She previously spent 31 years at the agency prior to her appointment at the public university in late 2017.

Her NIST career started in research biomedical engineering work and later she was promoted as acting principal deputy director and associate director for laboratory programs.

Telecommunications specialist Ken Riordan has returned to Nokia as principal architect for its U.S. government-facing task force.

In his new position, Riordan will build on his prior experience servicing federal clients with cell technologies in order to spearhead the creation and implementation of communications networks for Nokia’s public sector customers, the Finland-based company said Tuesday.

Riordan commented that he is “thrilled” to again partner with Nokia, where he previously worked for nearly seven years from 2011 to 2018.

He began at the company as head of its device business segment, where he developed and sold consumer data devices and femtocell products. Riordan then designed and offered in-building wireless products as Nokia’s senior director of small cell products, before rising to the position of senior director of business development for the enterprise’s mobile networks department.

Prior to that, Riordan spent over 12 years with Motorola performing work surrounding mobile handsets and consumer data devices. 

Regarding his new appointment, Riordan shared, “Much like my previous work with Alphabet’s project Loon, our success will depend on leveraging Nokia’s deep portfolio of technology assets and adapting those assets to the unique needs of our Federal Government customers,” Riordan explained.

At Loon LLC, an Alphabet-owned organization, Riordan occupied the role of head of product management for connectivity solutions, wherein he was at the forefront of a high-altitude platform station project. During his time at Loon he also launched the inaugural commercial HAPS network and was on the ground floor of the HAPS Alliance, in which he will continue to participate on Nokia’s behalf as president and member of the board of directors.

In the past, Riordan also resided on the executive board of the Small Cell Forum and acted as technical committee chair and forum vice-chair at the Wireless Innovation Forum.

As principal architect at Nokia, Riordan will be focused on adapting emerging commercial technologies, especially 3GPP and 5G, for the needs of the federal government. His efforts will be targeted to tactical communications, security and resilient networks.