This proposal seeks funds to support a workshop involving the tribological community's leading scientists and engineers, aimed at exploring and identifying future areas of fundamental tribological research. The changing landscape of fundamental research funding, the development of new experimental, simulation, and modeling tools, and the rapid emergence of new technologies relying upon advanced tribological performance together provide the impetus for the proposed workshop. The program will be focused on discussions of central themes, the role of new materials, and the influence or context of environment. Proposed areas of discussion include fundamental mechanisms of energy dissipation at moving interfaces, influence of surface chemistry on tribological performance, wear mechanisms and resistance, computation and simulation of tribological events, extreme miniaturization and the influence of nanomechanics, extreme environments including space environments and high temperatures, design and performance of biocompatible tribological systems, energy efficiency and energy security, surface structure modifications for novel tribological behavior, development of ceramics, biomaterials, self-healing/adaptive materials, nanomaterials, and ultralow-friction materials for tribological applications.
The proposed workshop will take place over a two-day time period in early fall, 2004 and will be organized and run by Prof. Scott S. Perry of the University of Houston and Prof. Wilfred T. Tysoe of the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee. The proposed workshop will involve approximately 20 scientists and engineers from a range of disciplines and possessing experience in a number of different fields. Participation in the workshop will be by invitation only. The organizers of the workshop propose to document and publish the outcomes of the workshop discussion and debate in the form of a position paper, thus insuring the wide dissemination of the major themes and conclusions reached through the workshop.
