ITC Thanks Past Executive Board Members

date: 27.06.2023

Jianbin Luo, Kenneth Holmberg and Ali Erdemir have recently stepped down as members of the International Tribology Council Executive Committee and ITC would like to record their deep gratitude for their support and commitment.

Prof. Luo, of the world-renowned State Key Laboratory of Tribology at Tsinghua University in China, played a crucial role in the organisation of the 2017 World Tribology Congress in Beijing, including acting as an intermediary between the ITC and the congress organisers. He is an expert in thin-film lubrication and superlubricity and holds many honours including the STLE International Award and the CTI Supreme Achievement Award in Tribology.

Prof. Kenneth Holmberg worked at VTT in Finland from 1980 and supported the ITC as a committee member over several decades, holding special responsibility for managing the applications of new members as well as serving as a member of the panel which reviewed potential applicants to host the World Congress meetings. Kenneth is an expert in the friction and wear of coated surfaces, computer simulation of tribological contacts, e-maintenance and global impact of friction and wear on energy consumption, emissions and economy. Kenneth is a recipient of the Tribology Trust Gold Medal and is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in Finland.

Prof. Ali Erdemir spent most of his career at Argonne National Laboratory, in the United States, but moved to Texas A&M University as a Halliburton Chair in 2020. Ali Erdemir was ITC President from 2017-2022 and introduced a number of new initiatives including the Peter Jost Award and the Distinguished Advisory Board to support the Executive committee. As a scientist, Ali is world renowned for his discoveries in the areas of diamond-like carbon and superlubricity, but has had major impact in many other areas of tribology, surface engineering and materials science. Ali is a member of the US National Academy of Engineering and the European Academy of Arts and Sciences.

There is no doubt that the work of these greats of tribology has gone a long way to shaping the operation of the ITC as we know it today and we would like to take this opportunity to record our sincere thanks for their support and commitment to this organisation.

All three have agreed to serve on the ITC Distinguished Advisory Board, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to be able to call on their experience in the future.