Charles-Édouard Guillaume

On 17 October 2020, the BIPM will celebrate the life and work of Charles-Édouard Guillaume with a symposium that will consider his legacy.

Charles-Édouard Guillaume

This year will mark the centenary of the award of the Nobel Prize in Physics to Charles-Édouard Guillaume (1861-1938). He was born into a watchmaking family in Fleurier, Switzerland. He dedicated more than half a century to metrology through his work at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM). His major study of the properties of nickel-iron alloys spanned more than twenty-five years and not only revolutionized geodesy measurements but also chronometry and precision horology; numerous applications still exist for these alloys. In 1915, he became Director of the BIPM, a position he held until his retirement in 1936.

He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1920 "in recognition of the service he has rendered to precision measurements in Physics by his discovery of anomalies in nickel steel alloys".

Organizing Committee

• Martin Milton, Director of the BIPM,
• Philippe Richard, Director of METAS (Switzerland) and Member of the CIPM,
• Jean-Louis Dillard, Fondation Charles-Édouard Guillaume (and great-grandson of Charles-Édouard Guillaume),
• Céline Fellag Ariouet, BIPM
• Richard Davis, BIPM.

Date and location

Saturday 17 October 2020 at the BIPM, Sèvres, France.

For further information please contact Céline Fellag Ariouet.