2005 IMechE Tribology Gold Medal
2005 IMechE Tribology Gold Medal
An 86-year-old Russian professor has won the coveted 2005 Tribology Gold Medal from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).
Prof Dmitrii Nikolaevich Garkunov, an academic with the Russian Academy of Engineers, has been awarded the medal for his achievements in tribology, an area of science focusing on the study of friction, wear and lubrication.
The IMechE administers the Tribology Trust which decided Dr Garkunov should get the top accolade, and highlighted his research in the fields of selective transfer and metal hydrogen wear.
He was born on in 1919 in the village of RozÏki in the Kirov district of Russia and graduated from the Physo-Mathematical Faculty of the Tomsk State University, his special subject being metal physics, in 1941. He continued his studies at the Zhukovskii Air Force Engineering Academy and received his doctorate in 1962. After graduation and until 1970 he worked in the Aviation Research Institute. His research was on problems of improving the wear resistance and lifetime of aircraft parts.
Since 1970 he has lectured on problems of tribology and materials science in the Gomel State University, the Russian Academy of Consumer Service, the Moscow Agro Engineering Institute and other Institutes. He is still working as a Professor at the Russian Academy of Quality Problems.
Dr Peter Jost, CBE, Chairman of IMechE's Tribology Trust Awards Committee said: “Prof Garkunov's scientific ideas were new and original. He is the founder of a new direction in tribology, based on two discoveries. They are the“no-wear effect” (selective transfer phenomena) and the phenomenon of hydrogen wear of metals.”
Dr Jost went on to explain: “The explanation of the no-wear effect mechanism is understood to be a principle of the evolution of biological systems. His inventions have found wide application in aviation technology and in light and heavy, as well as chemical industries, agriculture and others,increasing service life, reliability and reduction of lubricants and yielding considerable economic benefits.”
