Ernest Ambler (November 20, 1923 – February 17, 2017[1]) was a British-American physicist who served as the Acting Under Secretary for Technology in the Department of Commerce (1988–89), as the 8th director of the United States' National Bureau of Standards (NBS, 1975–89), and as the first director of the United States' National Institute of Standards and Technology 1988–89.

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.

[3][7][8] 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.