The Metrology Symposium 2019 was held on January 11 to provide insights to the local metrology community on how the revision of the International System of Units (SI) will enable us to embrace further improvements in measurement science and technology for a better and a smarter world. The symposium was jointly organised by the Government Laboratory (GL), the Hong Kong Council for Testing and Certification (HKCTC), the Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) and the Standards and Calibration Laboratory (SCL). More than 180 participants from over 60 companies and organisations attended the symposium.

Being the foundation of measurements, SI will be revised on May 20, 2019. Four of the seven SI base units, namely the kilogram, ampere, kelvin and mole, will be redefined based on the fundamental constants, which will remove the current limitations imposed by the use of artefact standards. The change will bring significant impacts and further development to the modern world.

The keynote speeches were delivered by Dr Della Sin, Government Chemist of GL, on “The New SI and its Implications”, and Mr Yan Yui-kuen, Head of SCL, on “Metrology for a Smarter World”. These were followed by a speech themed “The New Kilogram – Now approachable for extra-terrestrials and nonhumans also” given by Dr-Ing Prof h c Frank Härtig, Head of the Mechanics and Acoustics Division of Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt (PTB) Germany. Prof Härtig showed a silicon sphere which is one of the primary standards used to realise the unit of the kilogram after the redefinition of SI. Posters were also set up at the podium to showcase the SI redefinitions and the development of SCL in 2018. Following the poster session, speakers from the SCL and GL presented more in-depth reviews in selected metrology areas, namely the mole, metric system, optical clock and electrical metrology.