1992: Professor Duncan Dowson

1992: Professor Duncan Dowson

 

Professor Duncan Dowson (1928-2020)

107th President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers

Dowson was born in 1928.

He was educated at Lady Lumley’s Grammar School, at Pickering, Yorkshire. He attended Leeds University, where he was awarded a BSc in Mechanical Engineering in 1950 and a PhD in 1952.

He began his career as a Research Engineer at Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Co., where he remained for two years before taking up the position of Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering at Leeds University. He was an instrumental member of the Ministry of Education and Science committee that identified tribology in 1966. The following year he established the Institute of Tribology at Leeds to coordinate tribological practice in industry, teaching and research. Her served as Institute Director until 1987.

At Leeds University, Dowson has promoted innovative degree courses, undergraduate exchange systems and continuing professional education.

His own research has focussed on elastohydrodynamic lubrication, the lubrication of machine elements and natural synovial joints, and the tribological characteristics of total replacement joints.

He was elected to the Fellowship of Engineering in 1982, and was appointed a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1987. He has worked on committees established by the Department of Education and Science, the Department of Health and Social Security, and the Science and Engineering Research Council.

He was President of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers in 1992.

He died in 2020.

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