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Bradford professor awarded national engineering prize

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One of the University of Bradford's 50th Anniversary Chairs has been awarded one of the UK's most prestigious engineering prizes.

Professor Martin Priest received the 2015 Tribology Trust Silver Medal from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) at a ceremony in London.

The Institution made the award to recognise Professor Priest’s ‘outstanding and sustained contribution to the science and technology of tribology’ – the study of friction, wear, lubrication and associated subjects.

Professor Priest’s work has involved specialist study of engine lubrication and in particular wear and tear of piston rings and cylinders. He has developed close links with major oil, automotive and bearing companies and has acted as an adviser in these industries.

He has supervised 20 research students and published over 70 papers and book chapters. He is a Fellow of the IMechE in the UK and a Member of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE) in the USA. He is also Chairman of the Yorkshire Automobile Division Centre of the IMechE and Vice Chairman of UK Tribology.

Professor Priest, from the University’s Faculty of Engineering and Informatics, said: “As a young researcher in the 1980s the recipients of this award were the authors of key articles I studied to guide my work. So to receive this award myself so many years later is a genuine surprise and a huge honour. We soon reach not only the 50th Anniversary of the University of Bradford but also of the introduction of the word tribology into our language following the publication of the Jost Report in the UK in March 1966, so the timing of this award resonates strongly with my Anniversary Chair appointment in Bradford.”

Professor Priest (left) is pictured receiving his award from Professor Richard Folkson, President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, at a ceremony at IMechE headquarters in London.

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