The 2004 Tribology Gold Medal

Citation

(2005), "The 2004 Tribology Gold Medal", Industrial Lubrication and Tribology, Vol. 57 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/ilt.2005.01857bab.001

The 2004 Tribology Gold Medal

The 2004 Tribology Gold Medal

Keywords: Tribology, Awards

For the first time in 19 years the world's highest honour in Tribology, the 2004 Tribology Gold Medal, has been awarded to a British Tribologist. He is Professor Hugh Spikes, Head of the Tribology Section at the University of London's Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine.

Professor Spikes has gained a world reputation for his outstanding achievements in tribology, especially for his work on the development and use of interferometic technology to wear and study of very thin tribofilms.

Professor Spikes has been able to move effortlessly between the macro and nano tribology worlds. His close contact with industry led to his work being rapidly integrated into tribological practice at engineering levels.

Citation

Hugh Alexander Spikes was born in 1945 and obtained a first degree in Natural Sciences (Chemistry) from the University of Cambridge in 1968. In 1972, he gained his PhD at the University of London for his research into surface chemical properties of lubricating oils. In 1992, he became reader at the Department of Mechanical Engineering of Imperial College and professor in 1996.

Professor Spikes' background in chemistry has greatly influenced his work in tribology. He has shown a sustained interest in the way that lubricants behave at a molecular level and in disentangling the various mechanisms by which lubricants form tribofilms capable of protecting surfaces in sliding and rolling contact.

Whilst the first 10 years of his research focused largely on the chemistry of lubricants, he used the skill sets of chemistry, physics and engineering to become a mechanical engineer, a route that very few feel confident to take. His resulting ability to solve a number of long-standing controversies by means of his multi- disciplinary and innovative experimental approach, has made him an important player in the field of tribology.

One of Professor Spikes' most important contributions has been to boundary lubrication. His research has transformed our understanding of this subject far beyond what could have been envisaged in the 1970s and his discoveries are now routinely entered in text books, as well as being widely used by the additive and lubricant manufacturing industry. He has become a world-acknowledged expert in this field.

Experimental work conducted by Professor Spikes and his group has also provided fundamental knowledge of the very important transition region between the regimes of “fluid-film” and “boundary” lubrication, where he has revealed the rheological behaviour of ultra-thin lubricating films and how this can be controlled and optimized by adjusting the lubricant chemical composition.

Professor Spikes' outstanding work has, however, not been limited to boundary lubrication. He and his students and research associates have carried out pioneering work in the story of elastohydrodynamic lubrication, by exploring the influence of roughness and non-steady operating conditions on lubricant behaviour in this regime. This has helped industrial undertakings such as bearing and gear producers to optimise the finishing processes employed in manufacture.

In the area of nanotechnology Professor Spikes has been able to move effortlessly between the macro and nanoworlds, gaining new insights and developing new techniques for studying nanoscale tribological phenomena.

Professor Spikes' close contact with industry means that his work has always been integrated rapidly into tribology practice at the engineering level. For example, his pioneering research in the mid-1980s on the friction and wear properties of diesel fuel played a key role in enabling fuel and additive companies to develop low sulphur diesel fuels and led directly to the current ISO/CEC and ASTM standard tests for measuring the wear properties of these fuels.

Professor Spikes has published almost 200 reviewed papers in tribology, spanning a broad range of related topics in the field of tribochemistry and triboengineering.

For his seminal contributions to fundamental research in boundary and elastohydrodynamic lubrication, his contributions to industry, and for his contribution to training the next generation of tribologists, Professor Spikes has won a national and international reputation of the highest order.

He has received many honours and recognition. In addition to Tribology Silver Medal, the highest UK national award in tribology, conferred upon him in 1995, he has received numerous best paper awards, from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers. In recognition of his achievements in tribology research, he has this year become the recipient of the International Award from STLE and the Mayo D. Hersey Award from ASME, the premier tribology awards of these two societies.

Acknowledged to be one of the most interesting and influential tribologists of the last 50 years, his leadership is anchored in his personal character- based on values, responsibility and service – and also an abiding enjoyment of tribology research. He is indeed a worthy recipient of the 2004 Tribology Gold Medal, the highest honour in tribology.