A strong manufacturing sector that can convert discoveries and ideas into new products and processes is a necessary ingredient of strategies to maintain the nation’s global competitiveness in science and technology, said National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Director Patrick Gallagher.

Dan Pearce—an engineer, architect, general contractor, and artist—is enjoying a circuitous career. He spent nearly a decade as an aerospace engineer at NASA in Houston and then he moved with his wife as she pursued an academic career at the University of Virginia.

Not finding many aerospace engineering opportunities in his new hometown of Charlottesville, Pearce became involved in other projects, including building a solar-powered house for his family and creating unusual sculptures.