The Tribochemistry Award
Presented toDr. Nicholas D. Spencer
In recognition of his outstanding contributions to tribochemistry by The Tribochemistry
Technical Committee (Chair: Dr. Keiji Nakayama), Japanese Society of Tribologists (JAST) in
September 2023 at “Tribochemistry Beppu 2023”.

Dr. Nicholas D Spencer was born and educated in the UK, obtaining his academic degrees at theUniversity of Cambridge, where he began his research career as a surface chemist. Following hisPhD, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley, for a postdoctoral fellowship, working
on fundamentals of ammonia synthesis. For the next 11 years he worked in the US chemicalindustry in the areas of catalysis, superconductors and analytical research. It was here, working
with the new technique of lateral-force microscopy, that he first encountered tribology.
In 1993 Dr. Spencer became Professor of Surface Science and Technology, in the Department ofMaterials at the ETH Zurich, Switzerland, founding laboratories working in the areas oftribology, biomaterials and surface functionalization. He has served as Head of the ETH

Department of Materials and has taught tribology and surface science to many generations ofSwiss students, as well as having given invited courses on surface science and tribology
worldwide.

Dr. Spencer has made a number of outstanding contributions to the field of tribochemistry. He
has pioneered the use of polymer brushes for microscopic and macroscopic lubrication in bothaqueous and oil-based environments, significantly advancing our understanding of such systems
and our ability to apply them in applications ranging from catheters to concrete slurries. Recently,
his group was able to imitate cartilage properties by grafting polymer brushes onto hydrogels. By
harnessing the power of imaging surface-analytical approaches, Dr. Spencer created thecombinatorial approach to the study of lubricant-additive behavior, which enables “libraries” oftribological-parameter combinations to be obtained for a particular additive, which cansubsequently be cross-correlated with the presence of individual surface-chemical species. By
developing new surface-analytical approaches for tribology, Dr. Spencer has provided insights
into many fundamental tribological phenomena. Examples include the coupling ofmorphological gradients with scanning-probe microscopy for investigating the influence ofroughness on friction and adhesion, the development of in situ infrared spectroscopic methods
for analyzing additive reactions with surfaces during tribological stress, and the use of frictionforce microscopy to map chemical differences in surfaces.

Dr. Spencer is co-founder of "Tribology Letters" one of the premier journals in the field, and has
been its Editor-in-Chief over the last three decades. He is also co-founder of the Swiss Tribology
Association, and the International Nanotribology Forum, under whose auspices he has organised
ten workshops on nanotribology in Asia. The author of over 400 journal articles on tribology,surface functionalization, catalysis, biomaterials, and polymers, Dr. Spencer has delivered
several hundred invited and keynote lectures at international meetings. He also has five books
and 15 patents to his name. Spencer is a member of the Swiss Academy of Engineering Sciences,a Fellow of both the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK) and the Society of Tribologists andLubrication Engineers (US), and recipient of both the 2022 STLE International Award andthe 2018 Tribology Gold Medal. He has contributed to the ITC and WTC satellite forums on
Tribochemistry as a member of the International Advisory Board for many years.

Dr. Spencer has contributed significantly to the development of tribochemistry through hispioneering research work, ranging from basic science to applied technologies, especially throughhis work on polymer brushes for lubrication and by developing new, outstanding surfaceanalytical approaches for tribology.
Dr. Spencer is indeed a worthy recipient of the world’s highest honor in tribochemistry – The
Tribochemistry Award for 2023.