Jennifer R. Vail

I am a tribologist- someone who studies the interaction between moving surfaces. Tribologists investigate wear, friction, and lubrication of materials. I graduated with my PhD from the University of Florida and then did post-doc work at Imperial College London. Afterwards, I started up the first R&D tribology lab at DuPont, gave a TED talk on tribology, and was a Khan Academy contributor. Nowadays, I lead a global team of chemists and material scientists for an instrumentation company. My book explores our journey with the invisible force of friction and how it has shaped human life since we discovered fire. Enjoy!