Highlights of astrophysical and plasma physics research at the National Bureau of Standards are given for the period of July 1960 through June 1961. Included as appendices are a selected list of papers published by NBS participants during the period 1955-1960 and a partial list of Bureau participants. The technical objectives of the program can be found in NBS Technical Note 59.

The National Bureau of Standards has embarked on a special program to unify and accelerate its research on hot gases. This work will provide data and theory presently required for the quantitative interpretation of astrophysical and geophysical observations and the measurement of properties of plasmas in the laboratory. The data, measurement techniques, and theoretical methods of analysis draw on activities in the fields on atomic and molecular physics, statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and theoretical astrophysics and geophysics. Both the Washington and Boulder laboratories of the NBS are participating. This note describes the technical objectives of the program and includes in appendices a selected list of papers published at the NBS for the period 1955-1959 and a partial list of Bureau participants.