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Janko Drnovšek - Past EURAMET Vice-Chairperson (GA)

The term of a EURAMET institution comes to an end. Janko Drnovšek (Slovenia) was Delegate and Vice-Chairperson (GA) of EURAMET until May 2016. "Throughout his many years in term Janko preserved a high level of commitment and enthusiasm for EURAMET. He cares a lot for people and for the association.", says Beat Jeckelmann, EURAMET Chairperson. "It is hard to believe that Janko's term has come to an end."

Janko has been EURAMET's Slovenian Delegate from 2007 and Vice-Chairperson (GA) from 2010. In these roles he has actively contributed to shaping and developing the association. His main areas of interest were the full integration of Designated Institutes (DIs) within EURAMET, capacity building and European accreditation. "On behalf of the whole organisation I would like to express our sincerest thanks to Janko. His work and contribution for EURAMET cannot be overstated," comments Beat.

As a member of EURAMET's Board of Directors Janko took over responsibility for the 'Focus Group on Facilitating National Metrology Infrastructure Development' and was responsible for the establishment of the new 'Working Group on Capacity Building'. As Vice-Chairperson (GA) he represented EURAMET in the European Accreditation Advisory Board. Janko actively participated in the development of EURAMET's guides No.1 'EURAMET and the Operation of NMIs' and No. 2 'Role of Designated Institutes within the CIPM MRA' (former guides No. 10 and No.11), the EURAMET 2020 strategy and EMPIR's capacity building programme.

Janko is very experienced in metrology collaboration and well connected at an international level. He participated in a large number of EURAMET projects and joint research projects within the European Metrology Research Programme. Janko works for the Slovenian DI 'MIRS/ULFE/LMK' and is professor for Measurement Science, Metrology, Quality Systems and European Technical Legislation. Additionally, he is the head of the Laboratory of Metrology and Quality, Chair of the Department of Measurements and Robotics and member of the Management Board of the University of Ljubljana.

In 1991 he was one of the founders of the Slovenian distributed national metrology system and the Slovenian National Metrology Institute, MIRS. Janko is the Slovenian representative for the International Measurement Confederation and chairman of the Slovenian Society for Process Control and Measurements.

"I have received so many nice words from people all over EURAMET and I would like to thank them all. It was a pleasure to work with all the committed people within EURAMET and I have learned a lot under three different Chairpersons," says Janko. "I wish my successor as Vice-Chairperson (GA), Maria Luisa Rastello, all the best for her new task." Janko Drnovšek will stay in the EURAMET community as DI Contact Person.

Janko, you have been contributing to EURAMET for a very long time. How did you originally get involved in EURAMET?

At the beginning of my engineering career I was engaged in bilateral research projects in measuring instrumentation and later in setting up metrology infrastructure systems in terms of assuring traceability, dissemination and calibration techniques. Within these activities I was lucky to have the support of the BIPM and numerous NMIs. When Slovenia became independent in 1991, our Society for Process Control and Measurements had already prepared a full national metrology strategy, paving the way to a distributed metrology system with nine DIs and one NMI. During that time, I received a lot of support from the Western European Calibration Cooperation and then from EUROMET. Themajor event was when Slovenia became member of EUROMET in 1996. From then on, Slovenian metrology was closely linked to EUROMET and later EURAMET, being active in all relevant bodies. I am convinced that without EURAMET, the Slovenian metrology systems would not be as they are today. We owe our current national metrology level and position to EURAMET as an organisation and EURAMET as an assembly of its members.

What do you consider as successes or failures during your involvement with EURAMET?

One major success over the last 25 years is that many smaller national metrology laboratories have emerged and demonstrated their ability to progress and became an integral part of the European metrology landscape. As a representative from a smaller country, I really appreciated the extremely fair relationship with and attitude from representatives of more established laboratories. This ensured a more balanced European development, which is one of the priorities of the European Commission. I consider it as a big success that besides NMIs, as EURAMET members, also DIs, as associates, have the possibility to participate in almost all of EURAMET activities (except voting). However, not only in my country but in many others too, there is a broader European acknowledgement of our metrology achievements than at our own national levels. This lies of course purely in the national sovereignty, beyond EURAMET. But nevertheless, indirectly it effects EURAMET. This I consider as a failure.

What are your plans for the future?

I have to admit that being active in EURAMET, was one of the highlights of my professional career. This is not primarily due to the metrological issues but due to the personal relationships and the spirit of the organisation. As EURAMET has introduced the possibility for full engagement of DI representatives, I am looking forward to contribute to further developments of the DI integration process, relations with the European Accreditation and the study on coordination in metrology.