About this Webinar:

Launched in 2025, the Advancing Standardization for Critical and Emerging Technologies (ASCET) Center of Excellence is an initiative designed to accelerate U.S. leadership and engagement in international standards and standardization for critical and emerging technologies, such as quantum. ASCET supports private sector-driven engagement and capacity building by fostering collaboration across industry, academia, standards setting organizations, and government, among other stakeholders. ASCET was formed under a cooperative agreement between ASTM International and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). ASCET’s mission, as it relates to quantum technologies, is to: a) broaden and diversify U.S. stakeholder participation in quantum standardization; b) cultivate a new generation of quantum subject matter experts who participate in standards; c) support U.S. private sector priorities through training, tools, and targeted initiatives; and d) accelerate the development and implementation of impactful, industry-driven, international quantum standards.

The goals of this session are not only to introduce ASCET and its objectives to you but also to communicate the urgency of quantum standardization for U.S. based organizations and industry professionals at this juncture in quantum’s growth.

Speaker:

James H. Dickerson, PhD, MBA, is the inaugural director of the ASCET Center of Excellence for ASTM International. ASCET (Advancing Standardization for Critical and Emerging Technologies) is a transformative initiative to accelerate private sector-driven U.S. engagement and capacity building in the development and implementation of international industry standards in critical and emerging technologies, such as AI, biotechnology, quantum, and semiconductors.

After a postdoctoral position at Columbia University, he joined Vanderbilt University as an assistant professor of physics. Later, he was promoted to associate professor of physics with tenure and associate professor of chemistry with tenure. Thereafter, he became the assistant director for the Center for Functional Nanomaterials at Brookhaven National Laboratory, a US Department of Energy Nanoscale Science Research Center. Before joining ASTM International in July 2025, Dickerson was most recently the chief scientific officer of Consumer Reports, the nonprofit consumer advocacy organization. Dickerson received a BA in physics from Amherst College and a Ph.D. in condensed matter physics from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Later, he earned his MBA from Wharton. Dickerson is a Fellow of the American Physical Society.

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