News

We say goodbye with sadness to Professor Mladen Boršić, a long-time respected member of the IMEKO Community. A tribute to him in the September issue of the newsletter.

With sorrow, we announce that Professor Olli Aumala passed away on May 19, 2025, at age 85.

Olli Aumala was President of IMEKO from 1994 to 1997. He was the Finnish delegate in IMEKO since 1975, from the beginning of the Finnish IMEKO membership until 1991. He was a member and an honorary member of several TCs. A tribute to him is in the September issue of the newsletter.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

We recently received the sad news that our colleague and friend Torben Rask Licht passed away on the 1st of November, 2024. He was the Danish expert in vibration metrology and an internationally recognised figure in that field for decades. He was also one of the founding and always active members of IMEKO TC22, Vibration Measurement. A tribute to him is the November newsletter.

IMEKO TC20, "Measurement Energy" and Women in Metrology and Energy Research, WIMER are profoundly saddened by the sudden passing of our esteemed collaborator, active member, and dear colleague Professor Benoîte Lefort from the University of Bourgogne and ISAT in France.

Another recent loss is the passing of Professor Emeritus Karl-Hans Laermann. IMEKO, its TC15, dedicated to Experimental Mechanics, the University of Wuppertal mourns him. 
There is a dedicated section in the September newsletter for Professor Benoîte Lefort and Professor Emeritus Karl-Hans Laermann.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

The metrology community, IMEKO, mourns the loss of Professor Manfred Peters, a former IMEKO President and former Vice President of the German Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB), who recently passed away at the age of 76. In the newsletter issue, June is the IMEKO tribute to him.

Dear Friends and Colleagues,

It is with sorrow that we announce the passing away of our colleague, friend, and member of IMEKO TC12, Dr Steffen Rudtsch, on 20 January in the wake of a short, serious illness.
We all liked Steffen, his friendly character, and his readiness to help and participate in all our efforts with his expertise.
We admired his worldwide scientific recognition and contributions to metrology. In the February issue of the newsletter, a section is dedicated to him. 
May he rest in peace and in our memory.
With best regards,
Davor Zvizdic, IMEKO TC12 Chair

For many years, IMEKO has been offering conference and other event proceedings from its Proceedings repository.
Beginning with the last year, we started to assign Digital Object Identifiers (DOIs) to papers that are in our database.
Papers can be found using the Proceedings Search on this page. For each paper - when the title is clicked - a new page shows up with the details, including the DOI (if already assigned).
In the case of inconsistencies, please contact us.
21 February 2023, Dirk Röske, IMEKO Information Officer

A warm welcome to our new members:
- Institute of Metrology of Bosnia and Herzegovina, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
- Emirates Metrology Institute, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.

With its Resolution 68/262, "Territorial integrity of Ukraine", the UN General Assembly has sharply condemned the recent military actions in Ukraine. Against this background, the Presidential Board of IMEKO discussed what impact this will have on IMEKO's activities.

 The Presidential Board, therefore, issues the following statement:

 Since its founding in 1958, IMEKO has been characterized as an institution for worldwide collaboration based on mutual trust without regard to political systems or political tensions. This stance has allowed IMEKO to foster scientific contacts in an atmosphere of friendship and understanding. As such, we view our neutrality as a treasured asset that enables peaceful and sustained dialogue amongst collaborating metrologists and scientists around the globe. We believe that this represents a significant contribution to mutual accommodation and peaceful co-existence.

For this reason, we are not taking a position with regard to the situation in Ukraine. As a matter of principle, however, we condemn all forms of violence that inflict suffering and ruin upon humanity.

Acta IMEKO is now recognised by the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), an independent, non-profit organisation aimed at increasing "... the visibility, accessibility, reputation, usage and impact of quality, peer-reviewed, open access scholarly research journals globally, regardless of discipline, geography or language." (see 'Our mission' at https://doaj.org/about/).
20220202, Dirk Röske, IMEKO Information Officer

• IMBiH, the Metrology Institute of Bosnia and Herzegovina, a new member organisation, join IMEKO. The Presidential Board warmly welcomed them and approved their Observer status until the next GC session.
• The new, faster way of approving Technical Committee members, scheduled quarterly and events (immediately when initiated) had its trial and works well.
  Event organisers are advised to check the „How to Organise Document” to ensure all the requirements are fulfilled. This document can be found in the download section of the IMEKO Webpage.
• The cooperation between IMEKO and EUROLAB has been renewed and extended. Both presidents signed a new Memorandum of Understanding; of IMEKO, Professor Frank Härtig, and EUROLAB Dr Paolo Moscatti.
  EUROLAB will join and support several IMEKO events in 2022.
  A series of “45 Minutes Seminars” are planned by the Technical Committees TC11 Measurement in Testing, Inspection and Certification, and TC24 Chemical Measurements. EUROLAB also support the conferences of TC23 Metrology in Foods and Nutrition and the TC6 Digitalisation in September 2022.
  The two organisations will explore further opportunities.
• The Ludwig Finkelstein Medal: The IMEKO President, Prof Frank Härtig, received the Finkelstein Medal from the UK member organisation for his notable contribution to measurement internationally.

There will be more to read on these topics in the upcoming newsletter.

We received the sad news that our colleague and friend Aimo Pusa, born in 1944, passed away on 28th October 2021. 
Aimo Pusa was a Finnish expert in mass metrology, weighing technology and in particular in force and torque metrology and since 1982, an active member of IMEKO TC3 "Measurement of Force, Mass and Torque" and from 1993 until 2008, the scientific secretary of IMEKO TC3. Read more about Mr Pusa in our November newsletter.

Presidential Board meeting
The Presidential Board met on the 6th of October and agreed on the following:

• New TC Events and new TC Members shall be approved quickly in between TB and GC Sessions.
• If there are no GC and TB Sessions, the TB will evaluate and agree on the TC Events per correspondence, and the Presidential Board will approve them.
• The TB approves the new TC Members per correspondence from time to time.
• The PB evaluates new Member Organisations' applications and may grant observer status until the next GC Session.
• The Board agreed that two Technical Board Sessions would be required a year instead of one.
• These much-needed solutions have been sought because IMEKO is growing, and the procedures must be adapted.
• The Board approved the updated guide "How to organise IMEKO TC Conferences, Symposia and Workshops", which will replace the old one in the coming days. This update made the guide compatible with the IMEKO new Constitution.
• The Board granted observer status to the United Arab Emirates.

The IMEKO World Congress 2021
It was a very successful event for the local organisers as well as for IMEKO. The challenges presented by the online event instead of in-person have been very well overcome.

News on the Working Groups
A lot has been achieved, especially on "TC functioning" and "IMEKO Publishing activities". The Technical Board plans a workshop in March for our working groups for presentations and a follow-up discussion on their work and achievements.

TC24 Chemical Measures
Technical Committee 24 welcomes now quite a few new members and has a meeting on the 14th of October. Professor Frank Härtig, our President; MSc Mladen Jakovcic, member organisation delegate of Croatia and vice-chair to TC11 support the new activities such as the plans for a conference in 2022.

News on the Secretariat
The IMEKO headquarters are moving to a new location with the 1st of November. The Secretariat kindly ask everybody to use the known electronic channels for communication.

According to the regulations within IMEKO, the President-Elect Dr. Frank Härtig (PTB, Germany) became the new President of IMEKO. He took over from Prof. Masatoshi Ishikawa (University of Tokyo, Japan) who is now the Advisory President. As new President-Elect Paolo Carbone (University of Perugia, Italy) was elected. Congratulations!
We welcome our new members: INMETRO of Brazil and ETS-UPN (School of Telecommunications and Space Remote Sensing, National Pedagogical University) of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
We also welcome all 44 new Technical Committee members. Details can be found in the September 2021 newsletter.

It is with great sadness that we inform of the passing of Dr Tamás Kemény. He was a long-time Colleague and Friend in IMEKO, serving the organisation almost right from the start. Over a couple of decades, he was our Secretary-General and an active member of the Technical Committee 3 (TC3), dedicated to the Measurement of Force, Mass, and Torque. In addition, he was known for promoting IMEKO and science with his editorial and publication work and presentations. Read some of Tamás's words when he retired.

Dear friends of IMEKO, dear colleagues,
The spread of the coronavirus and the measures taken in different countries forced the organizers of some of the events either to cancel the event or to postpone it. Please check the latest information on our Coming Events page.

The theme for the World Metrology Day (WMD) 2021 - as always on 20 May - is in this year: Measurement for Health. From the website of the WMD: "This theme was chosen to create awareness of the important role measurement plays in health, and thus in the wellbeing of every one of us. Indeed more widely metrology, the science of measurement, plays a central role in scientific discovery and innovation, industrial manufacturing and international trade, in improving the quality of life and in protecting the global environment." Read more on www.worldmetrologyday.org.