CV – Friedrich FRANEK
Born in St. Pölten in 1949, he graduated with distinction from the Bundesrealgymnasium St. Pölten (High-school) and dedicated himself to the study of mechanical engineering at the then Technical University of Vienna, Austria. In 1981, his promotion followed with distinction as Dr. techn. at the Technical University of Vienna. In 1984, he was granted teaching authorisation (venia docendi) for the subject "precision engineering, with special consideration of tribology". From 1972 until his retirement in 2014, he worked in various positions as a scientific employee and academic teacher at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), from 1983 as deputy director (from 1992 “Assoc. Professor”) and from 1999 to 2003 as di-rector of the Institute for (Micro- and) Precision Engineering (from 2002 “University Professor”) at the TU Wien. From 2004 to 2014 Friedrich FRANEK was deputy head of the Department of Microsystems Tech-nology, Institute for Sensor and Actuator Systems, TU Wien, Austria.
From 1981 to 1988, Friedrich FRANEK was also managing director of Tribotechnik Forschungsgesellschaft m.b.H. in Vienna (a private consulting company in the fields of mechanical and electrical engineering, already with a focus on triboengineering) and from 1986 to 2019 president of the Austrian Tribology Society “Österreichische Tribologische Gesellschaft), the national scientific working group for friction, wear and lubrication technology. From September 2002 till end of March 2020 he has been working as managing director (member of the managing board) of AC2T research GmbH, the Austrian Competence Center for Tribology in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, one of the world's largest privately organized research institutions in the field of tribology with more than 140 scientific employees. Prof. FRANEK is as well one of the shareholders and still Autorized Signatory of this institution. Moreover, in the years 2002 - 2005 Friedrich FRANEK was administrative and scientific-technical director of the Ludwig-Boltzmann Institute for Hip Endoprosthetics and Orthopaedic Implantology.
For several years Prof. FRANEK served as a lecturer at the Wiener Neustadt University of Applied Sciences, Wiener Neustadt, Austria, in the subjects Engineering Design, Machine Elements and Tribological Systems. He was as well lecturer at the Danube University Krems, Lower Austria in the subjects Tribology, Metallurgy, Biomechanics, and Prostheses Test Systems, and in charge of the elaboration of the academic curricula "Logistics and Quality Management" and "Traffic Informatics and Transport Ecology" for the St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences, Lower Austria.
Friedrich FRANEK was, beside others, awarded the 1st Class Cross of Honour for Science and Art (2002) by the Austrian Federal President, the Grand Decoration of Honour in Gold for Services to the Federal State of Lower Austria (2016), the highly prestigious Tribology Gold Medal (the highest award in the world in the field of tribology, 2016) from the Tribology Trust (London) and the Honorary Doctor of Sci-ence from the Metal-Polymer Institute in Gomel (Belarus) in 2019.
Friedrich FRANEK is living in St. Pölten, the capital of Lower Austria, and can be preferably contacted via his AC2T e-mail address: Friedrich.Franek@ac2t.at
