Summary of Scope, History, and General Nature and Trends
0. Petersons
November 8, 1990
(Updated May 4, 1995, March 10, 1997, July 19, 1999, August 8, 2005, June 15, 2006)
Scope:
The Conference on Precision Electromagnetic Measurements, more popularly referred to as CPEM, is devoted to topics related to electromagnetic measurements at the highest accuracy levels. These cover the frequency spectrum from dc through the optical region. As the maintenance of some of the highest accuracy electrical standards was converted to quantum devices, topics that relate the electrical standards to the fundamental constants were added to CPEM.
CPEM attracts a highly specialized international participation. The principal types of organizations that participate at CPEM are the national standards laboratories; industrial organizations that manufacture the highest accuracy electrical standards and measurement instruments; industrial and government standards laboratories that interact extensively with national laboratories; and universities that conduct research on precision measurements, standards and related fundamental constants. Attendance at CPEM is considered a must for the researchers and metrologists who are responsible for electrical standards.
Historical Beginnings
The Conference had its historical roots in the 1949-1955 series of biennial meetings entitled, "High Frequency Measurement Conference," held in Washington, DC. The sponsors of those meetings were the American Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), the Institute of Radio Engineers, and the National Bureau of Standards (NBS).
Under the present name, CPEM was first held in June 1958 in Boulder, Colorado. The scope of the Conference was broadened so that topics would span the electromagnetic spectrum from dc to the optical region. Subsequent conferences have been held biennially.
Charter
A formal charter was developed and approved by the permanent sponsors in 1964. At that time the sponsorship reflected the merger of AIEE and IRE. Also, the U.S. National Committee of the International Radio Scientific Union (URSI) became a permanent sponsor. The formal charter establishes CPEM as an independent entity to further the scientific, educational, and literary objectives of the participating sponsors. It is governed by the Executive Committee constituted
from sponsor representatives, ex officio members (officers of past Conferences), and members-at-large appointed by the CPEM Executive Committees.
CPEM is registered with the Internal Revenue Service as a tax exempt organization. The CPEM charter requires that all Conferences are planned to be financially self-supporting, with any surpluses reverting to the Executive Committee's treasury for the possible support of future Conferences. The Executive Committee is first responsible for possible deficits of any Conference. In its entire history, only one Conference incurred a loss. This was covered from the Executive Committee's treasury.
Between 1964 and 1993 there have been several revisions of the charter. The 1993 revision, in effect now, involved the most substantial changes. This revision emphasized the international nature of the conference and added two permanent sponsors. The first of these is the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM). The prominence of the BIPM in measurement science provides substantial stature to the conference. The National Research Council (NRC) of Canada also became a permanent sponsor joining NIST as an administering sponsor. NIST and NRC retain conference records and ensure the administrative continuity of the conference. The permanent sponsors are thus BIPM, IEEE-I&M, URSI, NIST, and NRC.
International Nature of CPEM
While the Conference was started and held for the first eight times (1958- 1972) in the United States (Boulder, Colorado), it had an international flavor from its inception as most major standards laboratories in the world sent representatives to CPEM. Countries such as Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and the United Kingdom were always represented. In 1974, CPEM was, for the first time, held outside the United States (in London). The 1976 Conference returned to Boulder, but the 1978 Conference was held in Ottawa, Canada. For a while a pattern was established whereby the Conference rotated between Boulder and Europe--1980 in Braunschweig, Germany; 1982 in Boulder, Colorado; and 1984 in Delft, The Netherlands. The European Conferences had higher international participation as well as higher attendance, perhaps because the locations were more easily accessible to more countries and participants. The 1986 Conference was held at NIST (then NBS) in Gaithersburg, Maryland, marking the first time an alternate United States location was used. At the time, this Conference had attracted the highest international participation of all conferences held in the United States. Following this Conference, the Executive Committee decided to formally broaden the international aspect of CPEM by alternating the locations between North America and other parts of the world. The North American Conferences, in turn, would rotate among Boulder, Gaithersburg, and Ottawa.
A chronology of the conference is available.
CPEM Publications
Since the founding of the IEEE, selected papers presented at each CPEM have been published in a special issue of the IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement (IEEE Trans. I&M). These papers undergo the same review procedures as other Transactions papers. There have been several separate agreements between CPEM and the IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement Society governing the publication of the special issue, the latest one prepared in 1986. Under that agreement, the IEEE Trans. I&M publishes, free of charge to CPEM, a special issue of up to 400 pages, with the conference agreeing to fund excess pages to a maximum of 600 pages. The broad circulation of these proceedings provides excellent visibility for CPEM.
CPEM provides a Special Editor and Associate Editor for this issue to help the Transactions Editor. CPEM also prepares and prints, at its own expense, the Conference Digest which is made up of summaries of CPEM presentations. The Digest is issued as an IEEE publication. IEEE buys copies of the Digest from CPEM for resale to its regular subscribers.
Special Status
The scope of CPEM is highly specialized; the practice of precision electromagnetic measurements draws upon the resources of a number of major disciplines such as physics, electrical and electronic engineering, mechanical metrology and engineering (for waveguide components), mathematics, chemistry and materials sciences. CPEM always had a strong international participation. Because of these considerations, CPEM was originally chartered as a separate organization with multiple full (permanent) sponsoring organizations, IEEE, URSI, and NIST (and more recently, BIPM and NRC). Individual Conferences always had additional local and ad hoc sponsors. Organizations such as the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP) and the National Conference of Standards Laboratories (NCSL) have regularly
supported CPEM. When held outside the United States, the local sponsors have undertaken full or nearly full financial responsibility for the conference. The consensus of the present Executive Committee is that the present independent status is a good arrangement for sponsors, participants, and the technical community.