News

EURAMET’s TC for Time and Frequency has a new chair: Carlos Pires

At EURAMET’s 2025 General Assembly, Carlos Miguel Sendas Pires (IPQ, Portugal) began his first term as chair of the Technical Committee for Time and Frequency (TC-TF). Looking ahead, he sees digital transformation as a central priority.

While already well established in the field, the rapid pace of technological change means there is always room for improvement. Enhancing digital tools, automation, and data management will remain key areas of focus.

His perspective on digital transformation is rooted in personal experience. Early in his career, he automated a laboratory that had previously operated entirely manually. At the time, learning a new programming language and successfully automating processes was both demanding and rewarding. The result was transformative: a calibration that once took more than two hours could be completed in just ten minutes, without human intervention. For Carlos, this marked a turning point in how he viewed digitalisation’s potential to optimise work processes. An achievement he still considers one of his most fulfilling in his professional development.

Carlos also highlights the importance of strengthening knowledge transfer between National Metrology Institutes (NMIs) and Designated Institutes. Despite progress in recent years, challenges remain. He believes closer cooperation will help build capacity, share best practices, and foster more uniform development across the time and frequency community.

Now, as TC Chair, Carlos draws on two decades of experience. In legal metrology, he managed contacts and coordinated logistics for verifications, a role requiring flexibility and strong organisational skills. His involvement in EURAMET projects further strengthened his abilities in international collaboration, communication, and management.

Balancing his new responsibilities as TC Chair and with his role at IPQ, the National Metrology Institute of Portugal, is not without challenges, especially in smaller NMIs where staff must juggle multiple tasks. Yet Carlos is looking forward to his new role and confident that with careful planning, clear prioritisation, and effective time management, he can meet the demands of both positions. “Talk to me again in two years, and we’ll see how well it worked!” he remarks with a smile.

EURAMET extends its best wishes to Carlos for his new role and expresses sincere gratitude to his predecessor, Joseph Achkar (LNE-OP, France), who served as chair from 2021 to 2025.

Want to hear more about EURAMET?