In recognition of his outstanding contribution to tribology and in particular, to the development of techniques for the measurement and analysis of surface forces on the molecular or nanometric scale.
Professor Jean Marie Georges born in Chaumont (Haute-Marne), studied at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon and the University of Lyon, where he obtained his doctorate. His professional career in the French engineering industry, followed in 1968 by research work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, has made him realise that the understanding of friction, wear and lubrication processes among engineers and scientists was sadly incomplete. After his return to France he set out to remedy this shortcoming.
At the Ecole Centrale de Lyon, Professor Georges’ work began with wear studies of hard metals and alloys, and the beneficial effects of liquid lubricants upon friction and wear. In this work, he and his team of co-workers found themselves increasingly drawn from initial engineering considerations into the realms of physics and chemistry. Electron microscope techniques of electron spectroscopy were used to study the detail of surfaces and surface molecular species.
During this work, his Group at the Laboratoire de Tribologie et Dynamique des Systemes at the Ecole Centrale de Lyon found themselves constricted to having to work at the lower limits of resolution and sensitivity of the instruments available. They therefore designed and built more delicate sensing equipment, such as the remarkable Molecular Tribometer, which allows the study of boundary lubricating layers of 1-5 molecules thickness. The measurement of Friction Force and Surface Viscosity at this scale brought new insight into the problems of effective lubrication and wear prevention, faced daily in industry.
The experimental results derived from this work were illustrated and explained by simple physical models and mathematical models, having direct appeal to students and colleagues; this approach has encouraged others to take up the challenge of tribology by the design of allied experiments, aimed at providing further clarification of the tribological problems investigated.
The experimental results derived from this work were illustrated and explained by simple physical models and mathematical models, having direct appeal to students and colleagues; this approach has encouraged others to take up the challenge of tribology by the design of allied experiments, aimed at providing further clarification of the tribological problems investigated.
Professor Georges and his students were not content to confine their work to simplified model surfaces and lubricants. Their studies have employed engineering materials and real boundary lubricants, including colloidal polymer solutions and zinc dialkyl-dithlophosphate additives – as used, for example, in lubricating oil formulations intended for diesel engines.
Professor Georges’ team studied the changes occurring as liquid films are squeezed from the loaded contact, leaving a thin immobile layer to protect the rubbing surfaces of engineering ceramics, as well as conventional metallic surfaces. Reports of such work published in learned journals, and papers presented at conferences and seminars, provided practising engineers and academic staff and students with the insight and stimulus to use the new knowledge for the benefit of industry and society.
Under the guidance of Professor Georges, the Laboratoire at Ecole Centrale de Lyon has become, over a period of more than twenty years, one of the leading tribology centres in Europe, winning worldwide respect for the quality of its equipment, research and teaching.
Enthusiasm and sustained commitment, coupled with experimental ingenuity and perceptive analysis, have provided the driving force for these developments. The achievement itself has been nothing less than a direct linking of the everyday engineering aspects of friction, lubrication and wear with the molecular processes of surface science the tribologist has begun to understand his craft.
Professor Georges’ work has been described as a happy marriage between engineering and studies at a fundamental level and, in this sense, following the great tradition of Coulomb.
President of the European Institute of Tribology and an outstanding tribologist on the world stage, recognised as an engineer/scientist of great distinction, Professor Jean Marie Georges is indeed a worthy recipient of tribology’s highest honour, the Tribology Gold Medal for 1994.