Martin Priest
Principal Consultant, The National Centre of Tribology
BSc Mechanical Engineering (University of Leeds, UK), PhD Tribology (University of Leeds, UK)
Martin began his career as a reliability engineer at British Gas Research and Development in London. His long career in tribology started in 1987 at the Industrial Unit of Tribology at the University of Leeds, where he worked with a wide range of industrial clients for almost 10 years while completing his PhD in parallel. Martin then transitioned into academia, becoming a junior lecturer in mechanical engineering at Leeds and progressing to become the Jost Professor of Engineering Tribology in 2003.
He is a Chartered Engineer (Engineering Council, UK) and a Fellow of the IMechE (UK), IoM3 (UK) and STLE (Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers, USA). In 2015, Martin was awarded the Tribology Silver Medal—the highest national tribology award from the Tribology Trust/IMechE (UK)—for his “outstanding contribution to tribology, especially in the area of transference of tribology facility research to practical applications.”
Martin later moved into senior management as a Dean of Faculty at the University of Bradford, serving in the role for eight years until April 2025. He now works primarily in tribology once again through his industrial role at ESR Technology, complemented by Visiting Professor positions at the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and Lancashire (all UK).
A consistent theme throughout his tribology work has been achieving successful lubricated interfaces across a wide range of machines and components. Early in his career, he focused heavily on effective lubrication of internal combustion engines, but this soon broadened to encompass numerous challenging industrial applications. He has extensive skills and experience in experimental tribology—both in laboratory simulators and through real component and system testing—field failure analysis and reliability, mathematical modelling (using standard packages and bespoke analyses), and design for effective tribology.
As a mechanical engineer, he has gained substantial experience with surface analysis techniques in tribology and interpreting their findings, though he does not claim to be a chemist. Fundamentally, he views friction and wear as system responses to lubrication— or the lack of it—within the specific operating environment of a machine or component. He also brings considerable management and senior leadership experience to his role.
Martin began his career as a reliability engineer at British Gas Research and Development in London. His long career in tribology started in 1987 at the Industrial Unit of Tribology at the University of Leeds, where he worked with a wide range of industrial clients for almost 10 years while completing his PhD in parallel. Martin then transitioned into academia, becoming a junior lecturer in mechanical engineering at Leeds and progressing to become the Jost Professor of Engineering Tribology in 2003.
He is a Chartered Engineer (Engineering Council, UK) and a Fellow of the IMechE (UK), IoM3 (UK) and STLE (Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers, USA). In 2015, Martin was awarded the Tribology Silver Medal—the highest national tribology award from the Tribology Trust/IMechE (UK)—for his “outstanding contribution to tribology, especially in the area of transference of tribology facility research to practical applications.”
Martin later moved into senior management as a Dean of Faculty at the University of Bradford, serving in the role for eight years until April 2025. He now works primarily in tribology once again through his industrial role at ESR Technology, complemented by Visiting Professor positions at the Universities of Leeds, Sheffield and Lancashire (all UK).
A consistent theme throughout his tribology work has been achieving successful lubricated interfaces across a wide range of machines and components. Early in his career, he focused heavily on effective lubrication of internal combustion engines, but this soon broadened to encompass numerous challenging industrial applications. He has extensive skills and experience in experimental tribology—both in laboratory simulators and through real component and system testing—field failure analysis and reliability, mathematical modelling (using standard packages and bespoke analyses), and design for effective tribology.
As a mechanical engineer, he has gained substantial experience with surface analysis techniques in tribology and interpreting their findings, though he does not claim to be a chemist. Fundamentally, he views friction and wear as system responses to lubrication— or the lack of it—within the specific operating environment of a machine or component. He also brings considerable management and senior leadership experience to his role.
