18 July 2023
Born in Sweden, Dr Bo Persson started his academic career at Chalmers University in Gothenburg, where he obtained a PhD in physics, specialising in the study of dynamic processes on surfaces. After his doctorate, he did postdoctoral research at Forschungszentrum Jülich and at IBM Yorktown Heights before returning to Jülich, where he developed his theories as a researcher at the Peter Grünberg Institute (PGI-1) of Forschungszentrum Jülich and today, as an emeritus researcher, continues to apply them with great commitment to a wide range of practical tasks.
The theory of multiscale contact mechanics, also known as the "Persson Theory", is widely considered as a pioneering work in modern tribology. It addresses one of the major challenges in the field namely the way in which the random surface roughness of real surfaces influences the way in which they contact each other.
Dr Bo Persson's receipt of the Tribology Gold Medal underscores his remarkable contributions and further solidifies his position as a leading expert in the field of tribology. The Tribology Gold Medal is funded by the Tribology Trust Fund and awarded annually for the past 50 years by the Tribology Trust Awards Committee under the auspices of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE), London.
