The Nobel Laureate for Physics Professor Klaus von Klitzing is to appear as a guest at the Interdisciplinary Scientific Seminar of Wrocław University of Science and Technology,  where he will deliver a lecture entitled “A New Kilogram in 2019: The Biggest Revolution in Metrology since the French Revolution.” The lecture starts on Tuesday, April 17, at 02:00 pm, at WUST’s Conference Centre.

Professor Klaus von Klitzing’s lecture will concern a historic change to the International System of Units, also referred to as SI, planned to be implemented in 2019. Currently, of the seven basic units of measurement, i.e. metre, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, candela, and kilogram, only the last one remains defined in terms of a physical object (a platinum-iridium cylinder stored in Sevres). After the change, all units will be based on universal physical constants, i.e. phenomena as opposed to objects. This revolution will be possible thanks to a discovery called the “quantum Hall effect”, made in 1980 by Professor Klaus von Klitzing, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize. 

Prof. Dr. Klaus von Klitzing is heading the department "Low Dimensional Electron Systems" at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart, Germany.  He was born on 28th June 1943 in Schroda. Klaus von Klitzing studied Physics at the Technical University of Braunschweig. He continued his scientific career at the University of Würzburg, receiving his doctorate in 1972 and his habilitation in 1978. Subsequently, he was appointed professor at the Technical University of Munich (1980-1984), before becoming both Honorarprofessor (part-time prof.) at the University of Stuttgart and Director and Scientific Member at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in 1985.  During his scientific career, Klaus von Klitzing had research stays at the University of Oxford, England, at the High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Grenoble, France, and at the IBM Research Lab in the Yorktown Heights, USA.  In 1985, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Klaus von Klitzing "for the discovery of the quantized Hall effect".

You’re welcome to attend the German physicist’s lecture on April 17, at the Conference Centre of Wrocław University of Science and Technology (building D-20). The lecture starts at 02:00 pm and will be delivered in English and simultaneously translated into Polish. Registration is mandatory and free of charge.

A New Kilogram in 2019: The Biggest Revolution in Metrology since the French Revolution 
Klaus von Klitzing
Max-Planck-Institut für Festkörperforschung 

Metrology- the science of measurements- is responsible for the international uniformity and precision in standards. Today, the seven units for meter, kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, mole, and candela of our international system of units (SI units) are used as a basis to express everything in nature by numbers and units. The first global system of units was introduced during the French Revolution with prototypes for the meter and kilogram. Even today, an artefact of platinum iridium is by definition the international unit of mass but this standard is not stable enough. Therefore, the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) at his last meeting in November 2014 encouraged the international metrology community to complete all work until July 2017 necessary for a replacement of the current SI by a new system based on constants of nature. The experimental results indicate that the values of fundamental constants are measurable with such small uncertainty, that FIXED values for 7 constants of nature would form a good basis for a revised and more stable International System of Units. CODATA (Committee on Data for Science and Technology) fixed already the best values of these constants in a special adjustment in August 2017. It is expected that the new system of units will be recommended by the General Conference on Weights and Measures at his next meeting in November 2018 so that the revised SI system can be implemented worldwide on 20.5.2019, the World Metrology Day. Interestingly, this development was trigger by von Klitzing’s Nobel Prize discovery of the quantum Hall effect.