The 2015 Tribology Gold Medal has been awarded to Professor Shizhu Wen in recognition of his outstanding contribution to tribology, in particular for his services to promote tribology in the Chinese Educational Establishment.

Shizhe Wen graduated with a 1st Class Honours degree from Tsinghua University and awarded with the Outstanding Graduate Gold Medal in 1955. He remained in Tsinghua University until in 1979 when he undertook tribology research at the Imperial College, London. Returning to Tsinghua University he actively promoted the creation and development of tribology and his team engaged in research covering a broad range of topics from the traditional macroscopic tribology to the emerging nanotribology, which is closely related to Mechanical Engineering developments in China, especially the multi-scale approaches form macro to micro to the interdisciplinary research to mechanical engineering in future. He is also the originator and founder of State Key Laboratory of Tribology, Tsinghua University. Professor Wen’s research areas include lubrication theory, mechanism and control of friction and wear as well as nano-tribology. He has achieved significant results in the study about EHL, rheology lubrication, nano-film lubrication and the lubrication state transformation as well as wear failure mechanisms, which were creative and systematic. During the past 50 years Professor Wen has published over 600 papers. 8 books and received over 24 major scientific and technological awards. In 1999 he was appointed as the academician of the Chinese academy of sciences. In 2002 he was awarded the prestigious Science and Technology Progress Prize of “HeLiang, HeLi” fund. He received the Highest Achievement Award by the Chinese Tribology Institute in 2009 and in 2012 received the Chinese Society of Mechanical Engineering Technology Achievement Award.

Prof Wen’s outstanding achievements and their international recognition make him a worthy recipient of the world’s highest honour in tribology for 2015: the Tribology Gold Medal. The Tribology Gold Medal was established and first awarded in 1972. Each year it is awarded to the scientist with some outstanding and supreme achievement in the field of Tribology. So far it has been awarded to 44 individuals from 15 different countries.