Researchers active in two recent international tribology conferences

Virginia Tech faculty and former graduate students, in collaboration with researchers in Poland and Sweden, co-authored five papers presented at the international World Tribology Congress III held in Washington, D.C.

Michael Furey of Blacksburg, professor emeritus of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering and co-author of four of the papers, presented one on tribopolymerization as a novel mechanism of lubrication and one on triboemission of electrons. A paper on the wear of repaired human articular cartilage was given by one of his former graduate students, Nils Steika, in a session on biotribology. This paper, the first "in vitro" study of the wear of human articular cartilage, was the result of collaborative research with Mats Brittberg of Goteborg University in Sweden and Hugo Veit of the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine.

In addition at the Washington conference, Brian Vick of Blacksburg, associate professor of mechanical engineering and also a co-author of four of the five papers, presented two. One dealt with a new approach in the use of cellular automata to model complex processes in tribology.

Vick received his bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and Ph.D. from North Carolina State University.

More recently, Furey was an invited speaker and session chairman at the Fourth International Conference on Tribochemistry held in Cracow, Poland. He was also an invited guest at the opening ceremony of the Warsaw University of Technology in Plock. His collaboration with Polish researchers in tribology, notably with Czeslaw Kajdas, has continued for over 20 years. In 1998, Furey was honored by the Polish Tribological Society "in appreciation of his outstanding scientific achievements in the field of friction, lubrication and wear"-the first and only American so honored.

Furey received his bachelor’s degree and Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master’s degree from the University of Rochester.

The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is internationally recognized for its excellence in 14 engineering disciplines and computer science. The college’s 5,600 undergraduates benefit from an innovative curriculum that provides a “hands-on, minds-on” approach to engineering education, complementing classroom instruction with two unique design-and-build facilities and a strong Cooperative Education Program. With more than 50 research centers and numerous laboratories, the college offers its 2,000 graduate students opportunities in advanced fields of study such as biomedical engineering, state-of-the-art microelectronics, and nanotechnology.