Westat is an employee-owned research corporation serving agencies of the U.S. government, as well as businesses, foundations, and state and local governments. This company, located in Rockville, Maryland, and formed in 1961, is a major contract research and evaluation organization in the United States. In [Page 450]addition to their contributions as a statistical survey research organization, Westat contracts for custom research and program evaluation studies across a broad range of subject areas. Westat has technical expertise in survey and analytical methods, computer systems technology, biomedical science, and clinical trials.