Measurement man: NPL chief Peter Thompson

Fittingly, my interview with National Physical Laboratory (NPL) CEO Peter Thompson took place in the Institute of Engineering and Technology’s (IET) Turing Theatre, just a few minutes before he was due to take the stage. Turing himself worked for the NPL after the war, and it was there that the great man devised his plans for the ACE computer in 1946.

Some 80 years later, the man now in charge of the organisation was there to launch NPL Instruments, a new commercial service that will build on existing capabilities in an effort to better serve industry. It’s a project Thompson is clearly passionate about, and something he’s been working towards since taking over the NPL in September 2015.

“We already have an instruments capability, and what we’re doing is wrapping our arms around that and saying we can do this far more effectively,” he said. “Often we might work on instruments and get it to a certain stage that develops the knowledge, and then move on to the next instrument, whereas we can actually take that further up the technology-readiness levels.”