Contact Jordan LaPier Director (202) 495-3320 jlapier@ourpublicservice.org Boulder-based NIST scientist honored with top government award November 10, 2021 Higgins, a materials research engineer at NIST, will receive the Emerging Leaders Medal, one of seven Samuel J. Heyman Service to America Medals awarded by the nonprofit Partnership for Public Service, at a ceremony at in Washington, D.C., on Thursday night.