Professor Daniele Dini FREng holds a Chair in Tribology at Imperial College London is a chartered engineer and a Fellow of the IMechE, the Institute of Physics, and the STLE. He is internationally recognised as a leader in the development and application of computational methods for studying applied mechanics and tribological problems.  His group is at the forefront of the development of multiscale and multidisciplinary high-fidelity approaches that capture the physics of critical interfaces, from the underlying molecular scale to the macroscale seen by engineer as performance, e.g. energy efficiency and reliability.

Prior to joining Imperial College in 2006, Professor Dini studied for a D.Phil. in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford (2004). During his PhD and postdoctoral career, Professor Dini worked with Rolls-Royce on projects associated with the design of aero-engines and made important contributions to contact mechanics and fretting problems as well as the development of modelling techniques to capture microstructural damage in polycrystalline materials. This practical application of his work has helped build links between the tribology and aerospace communities.  His early work led to the award of the Tribology Trust Bronze Medal in 2004 and the Thomas Bernard Hall Prize for the best paper in the IMechE Proceedings Part C in 2008 and again in 2010. Professor Dini’s research on contact modelling was honoured by the ASME K.L. Johnson Award in 2012.

More recently, Professor Dini has made very significant contributions to our ability to model and understand fluid film lubrication and the origins of friction.  During the last 10 years he has extended his research from the macro-scale into atomistic and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, to study solid/solid and solid/liquid interfaces, friction fundamentals and MD-continuum coupling techniques.  Recently he has employed reactive force field MD to study the influence of molecular structure on the chemo-mechanical behaviour of antiwear additives in contacts.  He has also developed new solutions and functional materials in the biomedical field in collaboration with medical doctors. These scientific breakthroughs have also been recognised by the IMechE Donald Julius Groen Prize in 2018 and the prestigious Peter Jost Tribology Award in 2021. His group performs fundamental research, while successfully supporting the application of tribology in industry, the strong links with industrial partners have led to the Imperial College President’s Award and Medal for Excellence in External Collaboration and Partnerships (2017). He has written more than 250 journal articles and has delivered more than 50 invited and keynote/plenary talks to discuss his innovative research in the last 10 years.