911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ

In October 1953, Professor Cameron established a Lubrication Section in the Mechanical Engineering Department at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College in London. Professor Cameron was a chemist by background and an engineer by temperament so the Section’s research was multidisciplinary from the outset, an approach it maintains to this day. Some of his first research was to apply the newly-invented electronic computer to solve hydrodynamic bearing problems.

By the 1960s the Lubrication Section comprised three academic staff and about 20 PhD students working on a wide range of problems including hydrodynamic, elastohydrodynamic and boundary lubrication, lubricant additives, rheology, friction and wear.

A particularly important achievement was the development of  as a method of measuring elastohydrodynamic lubricating films. This has now become a very widely used way to characterise lubricants, both in industry and academia.

Professor Cameron retired in 1982 and the Section, now called the Tribology Section, was carried forward by Dr. Sayles and Dr. Spikes. In 1987 the Tribology Section spun off the consulting company PCS and in 1991 this became , now a world-leading tribology test equipment company.

The Tribology Section continued successful research throughout the 1980s and 1990s, including work that led to the  and research that quantified the influence of contaminants on bearing life, now enshrined in all bearing design handbooks.

The Tribology Section was awarded a Platform Grant in Tribology from  in 2000 and this was followed by a second such grant in 2009. In 2005, the Tribology Section was renamed Tribology Group and it received the Rector’s Research Excellence Award in 2008, recognising it as a leading research group in 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College.

In 2010 the  in Tribology was established within the Tribology Group, formalising a long and successful relationship between the Group and SKF. In 2013, this was followed by the establishment of the  in Fuels and Lubricants in the Mechanical Engineering Department at 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College, again building on past research links between the Tribology Group and Shell.

The Tribology Group continues to grow and prosper and now consists of , a senior and a junior research fellow, more than 50  as well as . It is based in the  of the , 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ, but maintains collaborative research projects throughout 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College as well as with many tribology research groups in academia and industry around the world. In 2017, the Tribology Group was awarded the President’s Award and Medal for Excellence in External Collaboration and Partnerships in recognition of these activities.

The Tribology Group and its members have received many honours and awards in recognition of the quality of their research.

• Three Tribology Trust Gold Medals (1983, Professor Cameron; 2004, Professor Spikes; 2009, Professor Ioannides)
• Three Tribology Trust Silver Medals (1996, Professor Spikes; 2004, Dr Cann; 2010, Professor Olver)
• Five Tribology Trust Bronze Medals (2004, Dr Dini; 2010, Dr Fowell; 2011, Dr Reddyhoff; 2017, Dr Vladescu; 2018, Dr Ewen)
• STLE International Award, (2004, Professor Spikes)
• ASME Mayo D Hersey Award, (2004, Professor Spikes)
• Taiho Young Tribologist Award, (2009, Dr Reddyhoff)
• Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, Jacob Wallenberg Foundation Grant (2000, Professor Spikes; 2002, Dr Sayles; 2004, Dr Cann; 2007, Dr Dini)
• Associazione Italiana Progettisti Industriali (AIPI), Leonardo da Vinci Prize, (2011, Professor Ioannides)
• Institute of Physics (IOP), Tribology Group, Innovation in Tribology Award (2011, Dr Wong; 2019, Dr Ewen)
• Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), Tribology Group, Donald Julius Groen Prize (2019, Professor Dini)
• Japanese Society of Tribologists (JAST), Tribochemistry Award (2019, Professor Spikes)
• 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College Research Excellence Award (2009, Tribology Group)
• 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College Rector’s Medal for Excellence in Research Supervision (2012, Dr Dini)
• 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College Faculty of Engineering Teaching Excellence Award (2014, Dr Dini)
• 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College President’s Award and Medal for Excellence in External Collaboration and Partnerships (2017, Tribology Group)
• 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2021, Dr Masen)
• More than 20 annual best papers awards from the journals of the IMechE, ASME and STLE, 14 since 2000

Tribology Group Collect the 2017 911½ñÈÕºÚÁÏ College President’s Award and Medal for Excellence in External Collaboration and Partnerships