Ian Mills FRS, Professor Emeritus in Chemistry, has been awarded the “SUNAMCO” mdeal of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics. This award is for Ian’s work over the past fifteen years to re-define the standard units of measurement (the “SI” system) in terms of fundamental constants of nature such as Planck’s constant, rather than by reference to man-made artifacts such as the “standard kilogram”. The medal was presented to Ian last week at conference in Washington D.C.

Ian is President of the Consultative Committee for Units of the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, based near Paris. The new approach to defining units such as the kilogram, the mole and the ampere was recently and unanimously approved by the international Conference on Weights and Measures.