The session deals with the impact of the National Bureau of Standards, which later became the National Institute of Standards and Technology, on two technical areas of interest to the AVS, vacuum measurements and surface science. Speakers are Bruce Kendall and Ted Madey. Kendall gives an overview of efforts to refine vacuum gauges and operating procedures, which includes McLeod gauges of the early era to the spinning rotor gauges, residual gas analyzers, and laser photoionization detectors of today. Madey gives a selected summary of important accomplishments at NBS-NIST in many areas of surface science, including instrument development, seminal experiments, standards development, and theory.