Keynote 2: SG's Metrology Journey

Prof. Gregory Goh is the Executive Director of the National Metrology Centre (NMC) at A*STAR and represents the Singapore Government at the quadrennial General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM), the intergovernmental forum that ensures the maintenance and propagation of the International System of Units, a crucial foundation for international trade, safety and health. He is the Treasurer on the Executive Committee of the Aisa Pacific Metrology Programme and also represents Singapore on the Expert Group on Metrology under the ASEAN Committee on Science, Technology and Innovation (COSTI). Locally, Prof. Goh is the A*STAR management representative on both the Singapore Standard Council and Singapore Accreditation Council and also chairs the SAC Council Committee for Laboratories - Engineering. He is also an Adjunct Professor with the School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. 

Before moving to NMC in 2020, Prof. Goh was Deputy Executive Director of the Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, A*STAR, and had held appointments such as Director of the Strategic Research Office and also Head of the Ceramics Materials department. During this period, he was the Covering Focal Point for the Sub Committee on Materials Science and Technology under the ASEAN COSTI. He also held an adjunct Professorship in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Nanyang Technological University. 

From 2017 to 2019, Prof. Goh was concurrently the Director of Special Projects in the Science and Engineering Research Council, A*STAR, where he scoped future R&D programmes and also oversaw electrification of transport and related matters in the Urban and GreenTech Office. He also represented A*STAR on various working committees such as Land and Liveability, Smart Urban Habitat and the biennial MND Urban Sustainability R&D Congress. In addition, Prof. Goh was the founding chair of the Singapore Battery Consortium launched in 2019. 

In the years before taking up management responsibilities, Prof. Goh led R&D projects under the 1st and 2nd Joint A*STAR-MND Green Building Thematic Strategic Research Programmes and also served as the Programme Manager for the 2nd programme. His research focused on the deposition of functional and electroceramic films and nanostructures which can be utilised in self-cleaning, heat reflection and also electrochemical applications. Prof. Goh has published 90 papers in peer reviewed journals and his research has been highlighted by The American Ceramic Society, Plastics Today, Chemical Daily, Asian Scientist, Science Daily, Straits Times and Business Times. He has delivered over 30 invited lectures and has served on the Scientific Advisory Committees of international conferences in Asia and Europe. 

Prof. Goh has Guest Edited for Thin Solid Films, Journal of Solid State Chemistry, Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Surface and Coatings Technology and the Journal of Electroceramics.  He serves on the Executive Committee of the Thin Films Society and was previously the Joint Treasurer and Joint Secretary of the Materials Research Society, Singapore.

 “WMD 2025 Welcome Address”

Dr Chua is the Head and Principal Metrologist and leads the Electrical Metrology Cluster in the development and maintenance of national electrical measurement standards in the scope of electromagnetic spectrum to establish international equivalence for Singapore’s national measurement infrastructure. He is overseeing the SI units’ realisation and traceability dissemination of electromagnetic measurement units through calibration and measurement services to the industry. Working with a dedicated team, he leads the Cluster to undertake R&D to advance metrology and deliver measurement solutions, provide metrology training, consultancy, and proficiency testing to the industry. His research interests are in the field of dc and low frequency electrical metrology and his current work are mainly related to the primary standards of voltage and resistance, ac-dc transfer, and energy efficiency measurement systems, and has published and co-authored more than 58 technical papers. 

Dr Chua has been involved in metrology for more than 32 years since he joined the Measurement Standards Centre (the predecessor of NMC), the Singapore Institute of Standards and Industrial Research (SISIR), in 1990. He was involved in various national metrology infrastructure projects, such as SISIR’s Calibration and Measurement Centre, the UNDP/UNIDO’s project “Harmonization of Voltage Metrology in ASEAN Member Countries” that set up the first regional quantum based voltage primary standard in Singapore. He organised an Asian Productivity Organization (APO) funded review of Singapore’s national metrology programme and a MTI follow-up review on chemical metrology infrastructure needs in Singapore. He plays a key role in spearheading national electrical metrology capability development projects since 1990 and propel NMC’s electrical metrology Calibration and Measurement Capabilities (CMCs) to attain CIPM global metrology CIPM MRA acceptance in 2005. 

Dr Chua represents NMC at the Consultative Committee on Electricity and Magnetism (CCEM) and Asia Pacific Metrology Programme Technical Committee on Electricity and Magnetism (APMP TCEM). He was the inaugural Chairman of the TCEM from 1999 to 2002, Chairman of CCEM Regional Metrology Organisations (RMO) TCEM Chairs Group in 2005 and Working Group for RMO Coordination (CCEM-WGRMO) from 2007 to 2009. He was a member of APMP Executive Committee and Treasurer from 2007 to 2010 and was responsible for the liaison work for APMP in APEC’s Sub-Committee on Standards and Conformance (SCSC) and Specialist Regional Bodies (SRB). He received an APMP Award in 2013 for his contributions to APMP.  He has been invited to conduct peer assessments on electrical metrology capabilities for national metrology institutes and the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in support of the CIPM MRA requirements. He is actively involved in standardisation and conformance assessment work and is currently a member of the Singapore Standards Council’s  Electrical and Electronic Standards Committee (EESC) and IEC National Committee, and a registered Technical Assessor for the Singapore Accreditation Council Singapore Laboratory Accreditation Scheme (SAC-SINGLAS). He co-chaired the Technical Committee on Thermal Imager from 2003 to 2011 that developed the world’s first Technical Reference for human body temperature screening using a thermal imager. He was a member of the Council Committee on Laboratory Accreditation (SAC CCLA) from 2006 to 2012, Chairman of SAC SINGLAS Calibration and Measurement Technical Committee (CMTC) from 2003 to 2006. He received a Distinguished Technical Assessor Award in 2005 and Quality & Standard Merit Award from SPRING in 2010. 

Dr Chua graduated with a BSEE (High Honor) from University of Arkansas, USA, in 1987, MSEE from Ohio State University, USA, in 1989, and Phd in Manufacturing and Engineering Systems from Brunel University, UK in 1998 under a SISIR’s scholarship, attached to the National Physical Laboratory, UK undertaking a project to develop ac resistance standard based on the quantum Hall effect.

Keynote 1: “The Metre Convention of 1875 - an act of multilateral scientific collaboration”

In 1875 seventeen nations signed a historical agreement to collaborate on a global measurement system. The “Treaty of the Metre” paved the way for implementing a standardized system, based on constants of nature, that provided all nations with the means to develop a measurement system that is globally comparable, and enables fair trade and consumer protection. The measurement system developed with industry and fostered new industries, and became the definitive measurement system for scientific research, industry and policymaking. The talk summarizes the development of the global measurement system to become the International System of Units (SI), highlights recent developments and emerging trends, give information on new plans for improved international collaboration and concludes with how the International Committee for Weight and Measures (CIPM) envisages the further development of the SI in the next decades.

About the speaker:
Dr Wynand Louw is a Solid-State Physicist that obtained his PhD from the University of the Free State of South Africa and spent 20 years as a material and material characterisation researcher at the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), also collaborating with universities and research institutions nationally and internationally. His research mostly involved the development, characterisation and fabrication of medical implants, opto-electronic materials and devices, and later ultra-hard materials such as titanium nitrides and carbides, and artificial diamond. He specialised in surface analytical techniques utilising x-rays, electron and ion beams. In 1998 he joined the CSIR National Metrology Laboratory where he started Organic, Inorganic and Surface analysis metrology, became the General manager in 2002, and in 2007, Acting CEO of the newly established National Metrology Laboratory of South Africa. With the appointment of a CEO in 2010 Dr Louw became the Director of the Regional, International liaison and Innovation Division, a position he held until his retirement from NMISA in 2023.
 
From 2001 to 2013 Dr Louw was active in the Consultative Committee for Amount of Substance: metrology in Chemistry and Biology (CCQM) of the International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM), where he assisted to establish the Working Group on Surface Analysis. During this period, he was also elected as Chair of the Cooperation on International Traceability in Analytical Chemistry (CITAC).

In 2013 he was elected to the CIPM, and in 2014 became the President of the Consultative Committee for Ionising Radiation (CCRI). In 2019 he was elected to the Presidency of the CIPM, and in 2023 was re-elected for a second term. The past 6 years he led the development of the Strategy 2030+ for the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, BIPM.

"New Isotope Techniques to Address Environmental Challenges"

Ms. Deufrains is a Programme Management Officer at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). She began her career in 1999 at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the U.S. Department of Energy, where she served as International Program Coordinator implementing the International Nuclear Safety Programme in Kyiv, Ukraine. She later worked with Battelle in Geneva before joining the IAEA to support the implementation of the International Action Plan to strengthen Member States’ emergency preparedness and response under the Emergency Conventions.

Since 2008, Ms. Deufrains has held the role of Programme Management Officer in the IAEA’s Department of Technical Cooperation, where she has managed multi-million Euro portfolios in politically challenging countries. Her work has required navigating complex international environments and fostering cooperation among Member States.

She also served for two years in the Office of the Director General, as a Programme Management and Planning Officer working on the implementation of the US$150 million Low Enriched Uranium Bank project.

"Metrology/traceability supporting automotive cabling certification & future Semiconductor measurements"

Increasing use of autonomous driving technology demands high performance and reliability from the in-vehicle data cables.  There is significant work to be done in developing necessary standards and test methodologies to ensure reliable and adequate performance of these data cables.  We review the types of cables used in automotive communications systems, the standardization governing their performance, and latest measurement methods for characterising and troubleshooting cable performance.  
Then we look at how the RF measurement technologies originally developed for cable testing can be applied to other emerging applications such as measurement of semiconductor devices.

About the speaker:
Harshang Pandya is General Manager of Precision Cable Test business at AEM, Singapore.  He has over 20 years of experience in developing measurement equipment for testing RF and optical properties of communications cables and components.  Harshang received his masters degree in Electronics Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, India in 1994.

“HSA’s Chemical Metrology Programme for Healthcare and Trade & Industry in Singapore”

Dr. Tang Lin Teo is the Director of the Chemical Metrology Division at Health Sciences Authority (HSA). With a Ph.D. and first class honours in Chemistry from the National University of Singapore (NUS), she has dedicated her career to advancing metrology in chemical and clinical measurements for the past 17 years. 

Together with her team, Dr. Teo has played a pivotal role in establishing national metrology capabilities, implementing accuracy-based quality assurance programmes which influenced regulatory policies in Singapore’s healthcare sector. She has led international collaborations, serving in leadership roles within the Asia Pacific Metrology Programme (APMP), ASEAN Reference Material Network, and the Singapore Accreditation Council (SAC).

Her technical expertise spans isotope dilution mass spectrometry, purity assessment of organic compounds, and the development of certified reference materials. She has been a key figure in organising comparisons, evaluating calibration and measurement capability claims from metrology institutes worldwide, and enhancing laboratory accreditation frameworks.

Dr. Teo’s contributions have been recognised with multiple awards, including the APMP Technical Activity Award, Singapore Accreditation Council Technical Assessor Awards, Singapore Standards Council & Singapore Accreditation Council Commendation Award, and long-service awards from HSA. Through her and her team’s work, she continues to strengthen measurement reliability for healthcare, trade, and food safety in Singapore and beyond.