NIM held the 13th International Advisory Board (IAB) Meeting

The 13th meeting of the International Advisory Board (IAB) was held online by the National Institute of Metrology (NIM), China, on September 1st. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, NIM Board of Directors and Dr LI Tianchu, Academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering met with seven IAB members via video link. NIM Fellows, directors of relevant administrative departments and heads of research divisions (centers) also participated in the meeting online.

NIM Director Mr FANG Xiang delivered his opening remarks and NIM Vice-Director Dr DUAN Yuning summarized NIM’s progress in the past year. They expressed their gratitude to IAB members for their support, and highlighted NIM’s key developments over the year including the progress of its branch institutes, the formulation of its 14th Five-Year Plan, and program plans with regard to the digital transformation in metrology, etc. IAB members then had in-depth exchanges with NIM participants. They made further inquiries about issues such as the management of NIM’s branch institutes, the business increase in technology transfer, and the progress in some fundamental research, and shared thoughts and recommendations.

NIM IAB was established in 2009 and meets every year. Members are all world-class metrology scientists having served as leaders of NMIs or international metrology organizations. Members have provided valuable recommendations on strategic issues of NIM. The current seven members are Dr Martin Milton, Director of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM), Dr Joachim Ullrich, Vice-President of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM) and President of the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), Dr Willie May, former Vice-President of the CIPM and former Director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Dr James McLaren, the former Secretary of the CIPM and the former Director General of the Institute for National Measurement Standards, National Research Council (INMS-NRC) Canada, Dr Peter Thompson, CEO of the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Dr Michael Kuehne, formerly a CIPM member and the BIPM Director, and Dr Jun Ye, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder and a fellow at JILA, a joint institute of the University of Colorado Boulder and NIST.