International Measurement Confederation

The International Measurement Confederation (abbreviated IMEKO, from Internationale Meßtechnische Konföderation) is a non-governmental federation of metrological organizations. It was founded in 1958 in Budapest, Hungary.^[1]

IMEKO has member organizations in the following countries: Albania, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, China, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, the Republic of Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, and the United Kingdom.

Structure

IMEKO is entirely staffed from volunteers from its Member Organisations (MOs) - scientific societies or institutes of the corresponding member countries. They delegate specialists in the different fields of metrology to contribute to the work of IMEKO in the General Council, the boards and the Technical Committees (TCs). The MOs organise IMEKO events (congresses, conferences, workshops, symposia).

General Council (GC)

The General Council is the governing body, containing one or two delegates from each Member Organization. Sessions are held annually.

Technical Board (TB)

The purpose of the Technical Board is to supervise the Technical Committees. The TB is chaired by the President Elect. The TB is responsible for creating and disbanding TCs, developing proposals for new TCs, facilitating communication with the journal Measurement, arranging sponsorship, the approval of events to be organized by the TCs, the support of the Editorial Board of Measurement, and helping to prepare Technical Sessions and Round Tables at World Congresses.

Technical Committees (TCs)

• TC1 - Education and Training in Measurement and Instrumentation
• TC2 - Photonics
• TC3 - Measurement of Force, Mass and Torque
• TC4 - Measurement of Electrical Quantities
• TC5 - Hardness Measurement
• TC6 - Vocabulary Committee [suspended]
• TC7 - Measurement Science
• TC8 - Traceability in Metrology
• TC9 - Flow Measurement
• TC10 - Technical Diagnostics
• TC11 - Metrological Infrastructures
• TC12 - Temperature and Thermal Measurements
• TC13 - Measurements in Biology and Medicine
• TC14 - Measurement of Geometrical Quantities
• TC15 - Experimental Mechanics
• TC16 - Pressure and Vacuum Measurement
• TC17 - Measurement in Robotics
• TC18 - Measurement of Human Functions
• TC19 - Environmental Measurements
• TC20 - Energy Measurement
• TC21 - Mathematical Tools for Measurements
• TC22 - Vibration Measurement
• TC23 - Metrology in Food and Nutrition
• TC24 - Chemical Measurements

World Congresses

• IMEKO I Budapest Hungary 1958
• IMEKO II Budapest Hungary 1961
• IMEKO III Stockholm Sweden 1964
• IMEKO IV Warsaw Poland 1967
• IMEKO V Versailles France 1970
• IMEKO VI Dresden East Germany 1973
• IMEKO VII London Great Britain 1976
• IMEKO VIII Moscow Soviet Union 1979
• IMEKO IX West Berlin 1982
• IMEKO X Prague Czechoslovakia 1985
• IMEKO XI Houston USA 1988
• IMEKO XII Beijing China 1991
• IMEKO XIII Turin Italy 1994
• IMEKO XIV Tampere Finland 1997
• IMEKO XV Osaka Japan 1999
• IMEKO XVI Vienna Austria 2000
• IMEKO XVII Dubrovnik Croatia 2003
• IMEKO XVIII Rio de Janeiro Brazil 2006
• IMEKO XIX Lisbon Portugal 2009
• IMEKO XX Busan South Korea 2012
• IMEKO XXI Prague Czech Republic 2015

Awards

Traditionally the following awards are bestowed at the closing ceremony of a World Congress:

• Distinguished Service Award, bestowed upon persons for outstanding services to IMEKO, active for many years as well-known specialists in the field of measurement.^[2]
• György Striker Junior Paper Award, a donation of the Founder and first Secretary General of IMEKO and his wife, to be given to a junior author under 35 years of age, whose paper reflects a deep understanding and knowledge of the theme of a World Congress. The sum of the award is USD 1100.^[3]

Publications

IMEKO activities are documented in the following publications:

• ACTA IMEKO – proceedings of the World Congresses
• IMEKO TC Events Series – proceedings of Technical Committees events
• MEASUREMENT – published by Elsevier Science Ltd, Oxford^[4]
• IMEKO BULLETIN – semi-annual newsletter^[5]
• Repository of publications – proceedings of IMEKO events^[6]
• IMEKO's website

International contacts

IMEKO is one of the five Sister Federations within FIACC (Five International Associations Co-ordinating Committee, further consisting of IFAC - International Federation of Automatic Control, IFIP - International Federation for Information Processing, IFORS - International Federation of Operational Research Societies, and IMACS - International Association for Mathematics and Computers in Simulation).^[7]

IMEKO also works with OIML, BIPM, the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society and the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. The way of co-operation is organising joint events, co-sponsoring events and inviting keynote speakers to each other.

References