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2012
Annual Review
2012
264
NPL published papers
£634m
of financial benefits NPL delivered
145
UK cancer patients survive
in peer‑reviewed scientific through measurement innovation each year due to NPL’s impact
journals in 2012 on the accuracy of the radiation
dose they receive
2,500
companies worldwide are
1,000
individuals from 80 different
8 million
tonnes of carbon saved by
working with NPL organisations received NPL NPL’s low carbon projects
Training in 2012
Managing Director
Guide to symbols
An introduction from Brian Bowsher
It is my pleasure to introduce this annual review. Despite the continuing
Find out more online difficult economic climate, 2012 was a very successful year for NPL – the UK’s
home of measurement and a world-leading centre of excellence in developing
and applying the most accurate measurement standards. We continued to
enhance our science and engineering outputs and the economic and societal
Watch online video benefits of our work. Partnership is critical for us to deliver impact and we
interact with 75 universities and 2,500 companies; we were delighted to grow
our commercial revenue by 14% in 2012, with over half of our orders placed
by international customers.
View online gallery
World-class science will always be at the core of NPL and we hit yet another
record of peer-reviewed publications (264), approximately three-quarters of
which were produced in conjunction with our partners. I was particularly pleased
to see our ground-breaking work on the room temperature MASER recognised
by Physics World as one of the ‘Top 10 breakthroughs for 2012’ – the only research
based in the UK to make this list.
Our staff sit on over 800 national and international committees helping to
deliver benefits to the UK. NPL has played an instrumental role in the European
Metrology Research Programme (EMRP), with involvement in 71 projects worth
€53 million to NPL, and we are positioning for a future EU Programme valued at
over €500 million. We recently issued ‘Metrology for the 2020s’ to national and
international acclaim; this document set out our strategic science ambitions and
opportunities for partnership with academia and industry over the next decade.
Of course these successes are built on our people and I would like to thank
all our staff for their dedication and commitment. One particularly noteworthy
achievement was the recognition for Dr Martin Milton, after a 30 year career
at NPL, in joining the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures in Paris as
its Director.
In November 2012 the Minister for Universities and Science, David Willetts,
announced that he wanted to adopt a different model for NPL once the
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2012 National Physical Laboratory Annual Review
Dr Brian R Bowsher
Managing Director
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Science
been the forgotten, inconvenient MASER is an acronym for Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of
cousin of the LASER. Our design Radiation. Instead of creating intense beams of light, as LASERs do, MASERs deliver
a concentrated beam of microwaves. However, conventional MASER technology
breakthrough will enable MASERs has had little impact compared with the LASER because getting it to work has
always required extreme conditions such as low pressures and temperatures that
to be used by industry and
are difficult, and expensive, to produce.
consumers.”
A room‑temperature MASER opens up new possibilities; it could potentially be
used to make more sensitive medical instruments for scanning patients, improved
Mark Oxborrow, co-author of the chemical sensors for remotely detecting explosives, lower‑noise read‑out
study at NPL mechanisms for quantum computers and better radio telescopes for potentially
detecting life on other planets.
This research was chosen as one of the top 10 breakthroughs for 2012 by
Physics World, the membership magazine of the Institute of Physics.
www.npl.co.uk/maser
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2012 National Physical Laboratory Annual Review
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Science
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2012 National Physical Laboratory Annual Review
www.npl.co.uk/time
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Science
navigation could, in the long‑term, reduce costs and limitations associated with
ground‑based technology, potentially enabling humanity to navigate far beyond
the outer reaches of our Solar System.
264
NPL published papers in
peer‑reviewed scientific
journals in 2012
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2012 National Physical Laboratory Annual Review
www.npl.co.uk/emrp
Shock Physics
NPL and Imperial College London’s Institute of Shock Physics are working on a
project funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
to produce pressure pulses suitable for the calibration of high speed pressure
sensors found in turbines and internal combustion engines. The information
provided by these sensors can aid the development of increasingly efficient
engines, but calibration is required to ensure they are giving true real‑time
pressure values. The pressure pulses used for calibration can be produced
using a shock tube where the rapid bursting of a metal diaphragm, exposed to
high pressure on one side, generates a shock wave. This shock wave provides a
well‑defined pressure step whose height can be calculated from measurements
readily traceable to the SI.
7,036
calibrations performed for
1,349 customers in 2012
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Science
Publications highlights
The following NPL publications have been highlighted for their scientific
contributions in 2012:
➜➜ Towards the redefinition of the kilogram: a measurement of the Planck
constant using the NPL Mark II watt balance. Metrologia – Ian Robinson.
➜➜ Mobility particle size spectrometers: harmonization of technical standards and
data structure to facilitate high quality long-term observations of atmospheric
particle number size distributions. Atmospheric Measurement Techniques – Paul
Quincey (with partners representing 21 organisations).
Publication highlights ➜➜ Towards a quantum representation of the ampere using single electron
pumps. Nature Communications – Stephen Giblin, Masaya Kataoka,
Towards the redefinition of the kilogram: a
Jonathan Fletcher, Patrick See and JT Janssen (with Cavendish Laboratory,
measurement of the Planck constant using the
University of Cambridge).
NPL Mark II watt balance.
➜➜ Investigation of the Equivalence of National Dew-Point Temperature
Realizations in the -50 °C to +20 °C Range. International Journal of
Thermophysics – Stephanie Bell and Mark Stevens (with partners
representing 23 organisations).
➜➜ Room-temperature solid-state maser. Nature – Mark Oxborrow (with Imperial
College London).
➜➜ Membrane mediated regulation in free peptides of HIV-1 gp41: minimal
modulation of the hemifusion phase. Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics
– Eleonora Cerasoli, Jascindra Ravi, Jason Crain and Maxim Ryadnov (with
University of Edinburgh, Diamond Light Source and IBM Thomas J. Watson
Research Center, USA).
➜➜ On charged particle equilibrium violation in external photon fields.
Medical Physics – Hugo Palmans (with Centre hospitalier de l’Université
de Montréal, Canada).
➜➜ Sputtering Yields of Gold Nanoparticles by C-60 Ions. Journal of Physical
Chemistry – Li Yang, Martin Seah, Emily Anstis, Ian Gilmore and Joanna Lee.
➜➜ Airborne and satellite remote sensing of the mid-infrared water vapour
continuum. Philosophical Transactions of The Royal Society A – Tom Gardiner
and Marc Coleman (with Met Office, Imperial College London, University
of Reading, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and V.E. Zuev Institute of
Atmospheric Optics, Russia).
➜➜ A Polar Corundum Oxide Displaying Weak Ferromagnetism at Room
Temperature. Journal of the American Chemical Society – Tim Burnett and
Markys Cain (with University of Liverpool, University College London and
EMAT University of Antwerp, Belgium).
www.npl.co.uk/publications
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2012 National Physical Laboratory Annual Review
121
press stories featured
NPL in 2012
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Economic impact
“The Centre for Carbon Launch of the Centre for Carbon Measurement
Measurement at NPL brings
On 26 March 2012, NPL launched the Centre for Carbon Measurement to help
together academic and business ensure the UK leads the world in climate modelling, global carbon markets and
partners with government green technology. Government and industry welcomed the launch of the centre,
highlighting its potential to reduce emissions and stimulate the economy.
and is designed to ensure that
NPL is currently involved in £7.7 million of low carbon projects in 2012, which have
we can have confidence in the
a track record of delivering a 1:35 return to the UK economy. The Centre for Carbon
measurements we need to improve Measurement aims to triple this volume over three years, and will also focus on
up‑skilling the workforce and attracting business to the UK.
our understanding of the global
climate, deliver policies for Since its launch, the Centre for Carbon Measurement has been active in a variety
of exciting projects:
mitigating climate change, and
➜➜ leading a project funded by the UK Space Agency seeking to launch a satellite
accelerate the development of low to provide more accurate climate data, improving our understanding of the
impact of climate change
carbon technologies.”
➜➜ developing a way to measure more precisely the amount of greenhouse gases
in the atmosphere in a project led by EADS Astrium
David Willetts, Minister of State for ➜➜ supporting the launch of the Nesta Carbon Data Challenge Prize that seeks to
Universities and Science encourage progress towards CO2 reduction by finding the best advances in
carbon measurement
www.npl.co.uk/carbon
Quantifying impact
NPL has been looking back to quantify the impact of projects carried out over
recent years. These studies demonstrate the economic and environmental benefits
of measurement research, which often rely upon companies making changes to
behaviours and processes over a period of time.
Work with NGF EUROPE, the largest manufacturer of glass cord for automobile
cam belts, led to increased acceptance and reliability of cam belts and
underpinned improvements to their strength and durability. The adoption of cam
belt technology brought about by the project enabled fuel savings by car owners
of some 450 million litres in one year and savings of 750,000 tonnes of carbon.
8 million
Work with power station operators E.ON and RWE npower to understand the
effects of switching to biomass fuel in coal power stations led to potential carbon
savings of 2.75 million tonnes at a plant in Tilbury, Essex, which came online
in January 2012. Total cost savings of £1.38 million could be achieved if the
tonnes of carbon saved by knowledge from this project was rolled out to an additional 20 plants operated by
NPL’s low carbon projects the companies.
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2012 National Physical Laboratory Annual Review
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Economic impact
Recyclable electronics: just add hot water Recyclable electronics: just add hot water
A YouTube video describing this project has
received over 45,000 views. Over 100 million electronic units are discarded annually in the UK at great
economic and environmental cost. In a project funded by the Technology Strategy
Board, NPL and partners In2tec Ltd and Gwent Electronic Materials Ltd developed
a printed circuit board from a series of unzippable polymeric layers. These can
withstand prolonged thermal cycling and damp heat stressing, but allow for the
easy separation of the assemblies into their constituent parts by immersion in hot
water. This enables 90% of the original structure to be re‑used at the end of its
life; a massive improvement on the 2% of material from traditional printed circuit
boards that can be re‑used.
www.npl.co.uk/reuse
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2012 National Physical Laboratory Annual Review
£634m
A wide variety of customers use NPL’s products and services. A survey involving
534 of these customers demonstrated that NPL has helped organisations achieve
financial benefits of £634 million per annum through measurement innovation
activity. The survey also explored the profile of the users, their use of products,
actions they undertook and the impact gained. of financial benefits
NPL delivered
through measurement
www.npl.co.uk/customer-survey innovation in 2011
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Quality of life
www.npl.co.uk/bubbles
145
A team of scientists from NPL and the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation
Trust have successfully completed an initial trial of a new, potentially more reliable,
technique for screening breast cancer using ultrasound, and are now looking to
develop the technique into a clinical device. Having received positive results for
UK cancer patients survive phantom imaging, NPL is now seeking funding to develop the work further.
each year due to NPL’s
impact on the accuracy
of the radiation dose
they receive
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2012 National Physical Laboratory Annual Review
Traceability established for new cancer therapy Traceability established for new cancer therapy
NPL’s secondary standard ionisation chamber
Work from NPL scientists has established traceability for a molecular radiotherapy was used to establish traceable 177Lu
treatment for neuroendocrine tumours, usually found in the intestine or lungs and measurements at hospitals.
arising from hormone‑producing cells. The treatment involves the administration
of a peptide radiolabelled with Lutetium‑177 (177Lu), which irradiates the
widespread tumour cells without causing excessive damage to surrounding
healthy tissue. After first establishing a link to the International Reference System
by standardising 177Lu as part of an international comparison exercise, NPL
invited UK and European hospitals to participate in a blind exercise to measure
radioactivity in samples of the radionuclide. This enabled the hospitals to
demonstrate traceability, ensuring regulatory compliance and patient safety.
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Working in partnership
The partnership’s science priorities will include developing: ‘low cost’ space and
Observing the Earth from space terrestrial deployable technologies and strategies to enable guaranteed delivery of
There is increasing demand for Quality Assured data; techniques to fuse multiple data sources for greater impact;
improved accuracy and reliability of and methods for assigning robust and understandable quality metrics to derived
Earth Observation data. information. This work continues a fruitful relationship between two leading
scientific establishments, facilitated by their close proximity, extensive facilities,
complementary research and shared goals.
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In partnership with the University of Bath’s Laboratory for Innovative Metrology in
Manufacturing (LIMA), NPL staff gave direct technical and management support
to the formation of the high‑profile Business Technology Centre. This Centre
was created to help small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) gain a better
universities worldwide understanding of measurement and to implement this in their manufacturing
collaborated with processes. To date over 150 companies from the South West of England have
NPL in 2012 benefited, and the partnership is building the foundation of a new national
network for product verification.
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2012 National Physical Laboratory Annual Review
www.npl.co.uk/infratechnologies
Creating an Ecoisland
The Nesta Infratechnologies report was
produced in collaboration with NPL,
the British Standards Institute and
The Centre for Carbon Measurement at NPL is collaborating on a project led by the Technology Strategy Board.
ITM Power to make the Isle of Wight a test‑bed for hydrogen fuel. The project
partners include Toshiba, the University of Nottingham, IBM and others. The
‘Ecoisland’ project aims to create two grid‑connected hydrogen fuel stations
to provide for a fleet of hydrogen vehicles. NPL will be providing essential
information about the hydrogen’s purity. The project will have a wide impact with
the roll‑out of infrastructure under the UK H2Mobility plan, which aims to ensure
the UK is ready for commercial use of hydrogen fuel for vehicles by 2014/15.
2,500
nanoparticles for a measurement comparison exercise and NPL scientists
helped analyse the results. Since this work was carried out, Naneum has won an
Innovation Award from the Institute of Physics and sales for the product have been
forecast at £1.5 million over the next two years.
companies worldwide are
working with NPL
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Our people
NPL scientists were on hand throughout to explain their work and its practical
applications, and to answer any questions in an informal environment. The range
“I always wondered what you did, of visitors, from young to old, and with varying levels of scientific knowledge,
gave our staff an opportunity to talk about their work to people with differing
and now I know!” perspectives, making the event an interesting and valuable experience for all.
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2012 National Physical Laboratory Annual Review
Professional Development
NPL has won the Institute of Physics Best Practice in Professional Development
Award for 2012‑2015, in the large organisation category. The award gives
public recognition to companies who demonstrate best practice in training and
professional development opportunities for their staff, and was previously won
by NPL in 2009.
NPL Academy
NPL Academy
The students from the 2012 NPL Academy work
experience week.
40 young people from the UK and as far afield as Spain and the USA attended
the 2012 NPL Academy - a week’s worth of work experience for GCSE and A Level
students. The students were first introduced to NPL and then assigned a host
member of staff who gave them a specific project to work on. One project that
especially ignited the imagination this year was to investigate the resilience of
electronics by seeing which parts of a mobile phone would theoretically work on
Saturn, by immersing the components in liquid nitrogen.
The NPL Academy gives students the opportunity to experience what it is really
like to work in science and can help them solidify their choices of degree or career.
One of the very first students to attend the NPL academy in 2008 recently returned
to NPL, after gaining a Physics degree from the University of Oxford, to work on
her PhD.
www.npl.co.uk/academy
34,000
people ‘met’ by NPL at 184
separate events
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Our people
Jane Burston, the Head of the Centre for Carbon Measurement at NPL, gained
recognition for her work throughout 2012. This included being named a ‘Young
Global Leader’ by the World Economic Forum and winning the Management
Today Sky Future Leaders Award, in the non‑profit and public sector category.
Jane also spoke about sustainable cities and represented the Centre for Carbon
Measurement at the UN Climate Summit in Doha, Qatar.
Richard Brown has been awarded the Doctor of Science (DSc) Degree of Imperial
College London in ‘The Application of Measurement Science to Environmental
Jane Burston Analytical Chemistry for Air Quality Studies’. This is the first Imperial College DSc to
Jane Burston was recognised for her work be awarded in the Natural Sciences and the first to be awarded to somebody other
promoting sustainability by the Management than an Imperial College academic.
Today Sky Future Leaders Awards.
Pierre Gélat has been awarded the Institute of Physics Bob Chivers award.
This biennial prize is given by the Physical Acoustics Group for the best paper
published by a PhD student on Physical Acoustics. Pierre won for his paper entitled
‘Modelling of the acoustic field of a multi‑element HIFU array scattered by human
ribs’, published in Physics in Medicine and Biology.
Martin Milton joined the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM) in
Paris, France, to take over as Director in 2013, after 31 years of service at NPL. The
appointment will see Martin heading up the organisation tasked with ensuring
worldwide uniformity of measurements and their traceability to the International
System of Units (SI).
Bryan Roebuck has been awarded a Distinguished Service award by the EPMA
(European Powder Metallurgy Association) for his many contributions to the
800
association, including as Co-Chair and Emeritus Advisor of the Hard Materials
Group, leading the formulation of research reviews and contributing to
conferences, summer schools, science courses and technical meetings.
committees or professional
bodies NPL scientists
sit on - these shape the
future of research at the
highest levels
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2012 National Physical Laboratory Annual Review
Alan Turnbull, Shengqi Zhou and Louise Crocker won the T P Hoar Prize from
the Institute of Corrosion for the best paper published in the journal Corrosion
Science. The research looked at the problem of crack formation in disc steel used
in steam turbines, which is vital to understand when assessing the lifetime of
components within steam turbines and that of power plants in general.
Brian Bowsher, NPL’s Managing Director, has been elected to the Comité
international des poids et mesures (CIPM). The CIPM is made up of 18 individuals,
each from a different Member State under the Metre Convention. Its principal task
is to promote worldwide uniformity in units of measurement.
Nick Ridler has been elected President of the Board of Directors of ARFTG - the
Automatic RF Techniques Group - and becomes the first European to hold this
post. Nick’s appointment puts NPL in a leading position within the organisation
and demonstrates its international reputation in traceable measurement of
electromagnetic parameters at RF and Microwave frequencies. Graham Machin
Graham Machin (right) accepting the Callendar
Graham Machin, an NPL Fellow in Temperature Measurement, delivered the Medal.
Institute of Measurement and Control annual lecture. Following the lecture,
Graham was awarded the Callendar Medal in recognition of his significant
contributions to the field of temperature measurement.
1,000
individuals from
80 different organisations
received NPL Training
in 2012
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Contact
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