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The great revolution in metrology began with the redefinition of the Metre in terms of the wavelength of light. From antiquity, practical dimensional measurement standards had all been based upon material artifacts and measurement of time on the rotation of the Earth.

All of that changed in 2018 when the base units of the SI were redefined in terms of fixed values of a set of fundamental and atomic constants.

The lecture will explain how practical measurement standards can be obtained from such definitions.

About the Speaker

Dr Terry Quinn graduated from Southampton University in physics in 1959 and then moved to Oxford for his D. Phil in what was then the Metallurgy Department. His thesis supervisor was Professor William Hume-Rothery FRS.

In 1962, Dr Quinn joined the National Physical Laboratory in Teddington where he worked on high-temperature measurement and standards. In 1967/68 he spent a year at the then National Bureau of Standards in Washington.

Dr Quinn moved to the BIPM in Paris in 1977 as Deputy Director becoming Director in 1988. He was Lady Margaret Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Cavendish Laboratory Cambridge in 1984/84. 

Dr Quinn retired from the BIPM in 2003. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2002.