NIST engineer a finalist in this year’s Sammies for her work in 3D printing

August 11, 2021

Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, seems like the answer to a million problems. But if the resulting plastic parts are full of tiny cracks and flaws, well, would you want that as your knee replacement? A materials research engineer at the National Institute of Standards and Technology discovered ways to detect and fix flaws produced by additive manufacturing. She may have saved a manufacturing revolution. A finalist of this year’s Service to America Medals program, Callie Higgins, joined Federal Drive with Tom Temin to talk about her work.