| Authorised form of name | Tabor; David (1913 - 2005) |
| Dates | 1913 - 2005 |
| Date of birth | 23/10/1913 |
| Date of death | 26/11/2005 |
| Activity | Education;
Regent Street Polytechnic Secondary School; scholarship to study physics at Royal College of Science in South Kensington (now Imperial College), remaining there to do a Ph.D for 'The area of caontact between stationary and moving surfaces' (1939)
Career:
Experimental physicist largely responsible for creating the modern science of tribology, which concerns the molecular causes of friction and wear betweeen solids. During his research at the Royal College of Science was invited by Australian born physicist F P Bowden to join him at Cambridge, where he worked until Bowden's death in 1968. Worked in Australia for the government's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, returning to Cambridge in 1946. Established a research group on the Physics and Chemistry of Surfaces in Cambridge's Department of Physical Chemistry, of which Tabor became head on Bowden's death, supervising its move to the Cavendish Laboratory. Elected Fellow of Gonville and Caius College (1957). Officially retired in 1981, but kept an office in the Cavendish Laboratory, where he continued to work. |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 21/03/1963 |
| Age at election | 49 |
| Royal Society activity | Medals and prizes:
Royal Medal 1992 |
| Relationships | Married Hanna Stillschweig in 1943. Had two sons. |
| Published works | 'The Friction and Lubricationof Solids', written with F P Bowden and published in two volumes in 1950 and 1964 |
| Sources | References:
'Address of the President, Sir Michael Atiyah, OM, Given at the Anniversary Meeting on 30 November 1992' in NR 1993 vol 47 pp 109-118
N N Greenwood and J A Spink, 'An antipodean laboratory of remarkable distinction' in NR 2002 vol 57 pp 85-105
Obituaries:
Biographical Memoirs of the Fellows of the Royal Society Vol 54, 2008, pp425-460
Obituary in the 'Daily Telegraph' (12/01/2006) |
| Royal Society code | NA1072 |
Archives associated with this Fellow
| Reference number | Title | Date |
| EC/1963/24 | Tabor, David: certificate of election to the Royal Society | |
| IM/004485 | Tabor, David | 1994 |
| IM/GA/RGRS/8060 | Tabor, David | 1977 |
| DM/7 | Domestic Manuscripts Volume 7 | 1857-1884 |
| RR/70/234 | Referee's report by Richard Vynne Southwell, on a paper 'A simple theory of static and dynamic hardness' by David Tabor | 20 June 1947 |
| RR/65/32 | Referee's report by Charles Herbert Lees, on a paper 'The area of contact between stationary and moving surfaces' by Frank Philip Bowden and David Tabor | April 1938 |
| RR/73/29 | Referee's report by Eric Keightley Rideal, on a paper 'Adhesion and friction and the effect of surface films' by J S MacFarlane and David Tabor | 24 January 1950 |
| RR/73/28 | Referee's report by Eric Keightley Rideal, on a paper 'Adhesion of solids and the effect of surface films' by J S MacFarlane and David Tabor | 23 January 1950 |
| RR/73/145 | Letter from Neil Kensington Adam, on two papers by David Tabor, James Woodham Menter and J V Sanders, to D C Martin, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Society | 26 June 1950 |
| RR/73/146 | Referee's report by Neil Kensington Adam, on a paper 'Orientation of fatty acid and soap films on metal surfaces' by James Woodham Menter and David Tabor | 26 June 1950 |
| RR/73/147 | Referee's report by Neil Kensington Adam, on a paper 'Structure of thin films of aliphatic esters and alcohols on metals' by J V Sanders and David Tabor | 26 June 1950 |
| RR/79/272 | Referee's report by John Desmond Bernal, on a paper 'The strength properties and frictional behaviour of brittle solids' by R F King and David Tabor | 6 November 1953 |