In 1953 Ambler began work in the Cryogenic Physics Section of the United States' National Bureau of Standards, becoming section chief in 1961. In his early years at the NBS, Ambler was principal collaborator with
Chien-Shiung Wu on what became the
Wu experiment. He was awarded a
Guggenheim Fellowship in 1962. He was elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society in 1958. in 1977. In 1973 Ambler was appointed deputy director of the NBS and, in 1975, served with NBS director Richard W. Roberts as the U.S. delegation to the 15th General Conference on Weights and Measures in France. Ambler assumed the position of acting director in 1975, following the departure of Roberts. In 1977 he was nominated to the office of Director of the National Bureau of Standards by President
Jimmy Carter and was confirmed to the post by the
U.S. Senate the following year. Ambler presided over the 1988 change of the NBS to the National Institute of Standards and Technology and became the first director of the new agency. Though he had announced his decision to retire effective April 1989, he agreed to a request by
United States Secretary of Commerce William Verity to remain as director through the end of the year and to also accept appointment, on an acting basis, to the newly created position of Under Secretary for Technology in the Department of Commerce. ==Personal life==