World Metrology Day: Measurements for Medicine

Illustration on black background shows measuring tools like microscopes and charts, with text "World Metrology Day 2020."

By Walter Copan, Under Secretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology and NIST Director

Today is World Metrology Day. Have you put up the decorations and baked a cake yet to celebrate?! You should!

Metrology, the science of measurement, makes modern life possible. Measurement science provides the common language that enables manufacturing quality, equitable global trade and the worldwide exchange of scientific data and knowledge.

World Metrology Day commemorates the day in 1875 when 17 nations, including the United States, came together to establish a single, global uniform measurement system, the metric system, which became the International System of Units (SI). Yes — the USA is indeed a metric nation!