Professor Richard Brown

Winner: 2020 Theophilius Redwood Award

National Physical Laboratory

For excellence in theoretical and practical aspects of chemical measurement leading to the recent redefinition of the mole, and communication of these changes.

Celebrate Professor Richard Brown

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The story of the revision of the International System of Units, and in particular the redefinition of the mole, is a beautiful, practical demonstration of why interdisciplinary research and collaboration is so important.

The revision of the International System of Units (SI) means that the definitions of the base units, including the mole, are now formulated in a way that allows us to turn future advances in technology directly into improvements in the accuracy of measurements, also allowing more direct access to the benefits of the new definitions for end users.

The revised SI futureproofs our measurement system so that we are ready for all future technological and scientific advances, including those that we are yet to imagine!

For chemistry, the new definition of the mole (based on a fixed numerical value of the Avogadro constant) has the added benefit of now reflecting the way that most chemists think about and teach the mole. It also provides a better fit to 21^st century technologies and keeps chemistry aligned with the rest of the SI.

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Richard J. C. Brown was born in Epsom in 1975. He was educated at Epsom College and Imperial College London, from where he received his BSc in Chemistry, together with the Governors’ Prize for Chemistry, in 1997. He remained at Imperial and was awarded his PhD in Electrochemistry in 2000.

Richard joined the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) to work on pH standards and subsequently on ultra-low reflectance surfaces, attracting widespread publicity as ‘NPL Super Black’. Richard’s work then moved on to air quality – in particular measurements of the composition of ambient particulate matter and of mercury vapour in air. In 2012, Richard was awarded the DSc Degree from Imperial College for the application of measurement science to air quality studies, and in 2015 was promoted to NPL Fellow in Chemical Metrology in recognition of his very significant contributions to NPL's scientific achievement.

In 2018, Richard was appointed as the inaugural Head of Metrology at NPL, with accountability for ensuring the quality of NPL's scientific output. He led NPL’s input into the recent revision of the International System of Units (the SI) and in particular the redefinition of the mole.

Richard was heavily involved in communicating the recent changes to the SI and the mole, and the importance of accurate chemical measurement in general, via a series of lectures, interviews and articles to the scientific community, academia and to the general public. He has published in excess of 220 peer-reviewed papers on a wide range of topics from air quality science to fundamental chemical measurement and SI units.

Q+A

How did you first become interested in chemistry?

There are a lot of chemists in my family. My father was an industrial chemist and my grandfather was a professor of biochemistry who worked under Nobel Prize winner Hans Krebs. I suppose there was no escape for me!

What has been a highlight for you?

Being present at the General Conference on Weights and Measures in November 2018 and witnessing the moment of scientific history when the vote was passed to revise the International System of Units and implement the new definitions of the base units, including the mole, was a great privilege and a real highlight.

What is something you are looking forward to?

I have recently made proposals for the range of SI prefixes to be increased to cover orders of magnitude above yotta, 10²⁴, in order to meet future requirements in areas such as big data, digital technology and quantum computing. I am looking forward to the scientific discussion within the metrology community about taking these proposals forward.

Why do you think interdisciplinary research and collaboration is important in science?

The story of the revision of the International System of Units, and in particular the redefinition of the mole, is a beautiful, practical demonstration of why each of these aspects is so important – it would not have been possible without collaboration, teamwork and international cooperation.

What is your favourite element?

Mercury. At school, picking up a bottle of mercury (and being astounded at how much it weighed) provided me with my first scientific ‘wow’ experience. Also, the contributions I am most proud of in my air quality work have been associated with the measurement of mercury vapour in air.

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