ILAC News 38

International Updatecontinued from previous page90 000 visitors, who opened a total of about821 000 KCDB web pages. The number ofmonthly visits varied between 5 600 and10 100, and the number of pages openedeach month between 48 800 and 117 500.These counts, however, do not include theadditional fraction of visitors arriving at theKCDB via our free-text search engine on themain BIPM website.Bipm WorkshopsBIPM Workshop on PhysiologicalQuantities and SI Units (BIPM, 16-17November 2009), chaired by Prof MichaelKühne, BIPMIncreasing demands are being placed onmetrologists and other experts to quantifythe effects of a multitude of factors on thehuman body, and this requires the resolutionof a number of complex scientific issues –including assuring the traceability of themeasurements to the International System ofUnits (SI).To this end the BIPM organized a Workshopon Physiological Quantities and SI Unitsto bring together the various interestedcommunities – principally those concernedwith traceable, reliable and comparablemeasurement, and those responsible forwriting and applying specification standardsand/or health and safety legislation. Theprincipal aims of the Workshop were toinitiate:• a collaboration aimed at relatingthe effects on the human body tomeasurements traceable to the SI or toother internationally agreed standards;• harmonization of terms and methodsso that measurements made in differentplaces can be related to each other,thereby enabling comparability ofresearch work and a consistent approachto the estimation of effects on the humanbody;• best practice guides and/or documentswhich may be adopted as the basis forthe measurement aspects of internationalstandardization, regulation and/orlegislation; and• a commitment by intergovernmentalbodies and international organizationsto work together and to encourage theapplication of the agreed best practices.The Workshop took place at the BIPM on16-17 November 2009 and the final reportis available from the BIPM website. Accessto the presentations given during theWorkshop is restricted to the participatingexperts nominated by the IntergovernmentalOrganizations, International Organizations,and National Metrology Institutes.BIPM Workshop on Metrology at theNanoscale (BIPM, 18-19 February 2010),chaired by Dr Alan Steele, NRCRecognizing the importance of measurementscience and metrology in emerging areasof technology, the BIPM organized andhosted a Workshop on Metrology at theNanoscale, bringing together scientists fromthe NMIs and industry with experts fromthe regulatory and standards developmentcommunity. The two-day Workshop, held on18-19 February 2010 and involving morethan 100 participants, approached the verybroad topic of nanotechnology with thematiclectures and round-table discussions in eighttopical areas:• Toxicological testing;• Nanobiology;• Aerosols;• Microscopy;• Surface analysis;• Thin films and coatings;• Mechanical metrology; and• Electrical and magnetic applications andmeasurements.The programme was very lively, and thepresentations were uniformly excellent,allowing the attendees to address the focalquestion of the meeting: “What activitiesare required to establish an effectiveinternational infrastructure for metrology atthe nanoscale?”The full report, which will be releasedin mid-2010, includes a comprehensivesummary of the discussions on this question,including the drivers to work on the topic,technical issues and barriers to progress,status and needs for traceability to the SI,as well as the anticipated use and needfor reference materials and documentarystandards.WMO-BIPM Workshop on MeasurementChallenges for Global ObservationSystems for Climate Change Monitoring:Traceability, Stability and Uncertainty(WMO, 30 March-1 April 2010), co-chairedby Prof Andrew Wallard (BIPM) and DrWenjian Zhang (WMO)The BIPM held a joint Workshop withthe World Meteorological Organization(WMO) on the broad subject of Metrologyand Climate Change, and how satellitebased,ground-based and other monitoringtechniques can be improved by the adoptionof best-practice metrology. This was atwo-day Workshop held in Geneva from 30March to 1 April 2010, with a fascinatingseries of presentations and a great dealof commitment by our colleagues in themeteorological community to take muchgreater advantage of the expertise that is inNational Metrology Institutes.The Objectives of the Workshop were to:• Identify key measurement issues inclimate science, Numerical WeatherPrediction model (NWP) and Earthobservation where there is a requirementfor improved underpinning metrology.• Foster closer links and develop dialoguebetween the metrology and the Earthobservation systems communities.• Drive agenda setting and road mappingwithin National Metrology Institutes(NMIs) and ensure that measurementscience is developed to meet the needsof climate science, NWP and Earthobservation community needs.• Inform the Earth observation systemscommunity about the capabilities andplans of the NMIs.In the words of Professor Wallard, Directorof the BIPM:“For us, it was a major step forwardbecause although there have been a lotof working-level contacts in a varietyof different disciplines between themetrologists and parts of the observationnetworks - the Global AtmosphericWatch and GEOS networks - it reallybecame a major commitment by theWMO at the most senior level.For those of you who would like tolook at it in a little bit more detail,all the presentations that were givenat the Workshop can be found onthe open BIPM website. Our aim is toproduce a report that will contain all therecommendations and the conclusionsthat we drew from the Workshop,and it will probably be a joint BIPM/WMO document. It will be circulatedvery widely, including to governments,intergovernmental organizations, NMIsDirectors, the international panel onclimate change, the UNCCC that dealswith this, and to anybody else we canthink of, because I think it is a majorstep forward to have the commitmentof two of the world intergovernmentalorganizations, tackling the metrologyand measurements issues in what, I amsure we all agree, is one of the most8 Issue 38 | October 2010