Dr Annette Koo set to become BIPM Director
MSL’s Director and Chief Metrologist to take on the top job in global metrology
We have some bittersweet news to share.
At the end of September, our Director and Chief Metrologist Dr Annette Koo, will leave Aotearoa and move to the global hub of metrology; the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM(external link)) in Paris.
There she will initially act as Director Designate, and will move into the top job when the current Director, Dr Martin Milton(external link), retires.
She’ll become the first woman and the first New Zealander to hold the Director role in BIPM’s 150-year history.
Annette has been at MSL since 2008, having joined the light team after a PhD in physics and two postdoctoral fellowships in Australia. As a scientist, she’s led the team that realises the candela, designed MSL’s robot-based goniospectrophotometer, and piloted the CCPR comparison of spectral transmittance(external link). Koo has represented MSL internationally for more than a decade – she’s a member of International Commission on Illumination (CIE) technical committees and chairs task groups at the Consultative Committee for Photometry and Radiometry (CCPR). In 2021, Koo became the Chief Metrologist for MSL, and in 2022, the lab’s Director.
“I came to the lab not even knowing what measurement science was,” she says. “17 years later, I can safely say that everything I know about metrology has been given to me through my mentors at MSL. And what’s kept me in the field is the real-world impact that metrology has – it’s all about what people need in their everyday lives to achieve their aspirations.”
On joining BIPM, the intergovernmental body that oversees our global measurement system, Koo says, “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. What an honour it will be to stand with - and for - the wonderful international metrology community.”
Dr Martin Milton says “I am very excited to have Annette joining us at the BIPM as Director Designate. We are all looking forward to the enthusiasm and energy that she will bring”.
The team at MSL is very proud of Annette. We are confident that the skills and expertise she has honed throughout her career here will stand her in great stead in Paris.
Our World Metrology Day events, which will mark the signing of the Metre Convention and the establishment of BIPM in 1875, will now be extra special, so we encourage you all to join us!