Mark Petrokovets

Mark Petrokovets
Mark Petrokovets
	Francysk Skaryna Gomel State University
Known for	study of materials science and tribology
	Scientific career
Fields	Tribology ; Polymer physics
Institutions	Metal–Polymer Research Institute of National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
Doctoral advisor	Vladimir Bely

Mark Iosifovich Petrokovets (Russian: Марк Ио́сифович Петрокове́ц; 10 April 1937 – 18 November 2006) was a Soviet and Belarusian scientist prominent in the fields of tribology, the study of frictional interaction between surfaces, and well known for his classical influential handbooks "Introduction to Tribology" and "Friction and wear in polymer-based materials".^[1]

Biography

Mark Petrokovets was born to a Jewish family in

Francysk Skaryna Gomel State University in 1959. He spent 3 years as a high school teacher in Brest region. In 1963, he was invited to Gomel Institute of Mathematics and Computer Science (it was later renamed to Metal–Polymer Research Institute of National Academy of Sciences of Belarus), where he spent all his life, working as a lab technician, senior mechanic, junior, senior, lead and chief researcher. He obtained PhD degree from Latvian Academy of Sciences

in 1970. The main focus of his research was the mechanics of the actual area of touch with viscoelastic contact. He received Doctor of Science degree in 1993. His doctoral thesis were dedicated to developing models of discrete contact in relation to metal-polymer friction nodes.

For many years, Mark Petrokovets was a member of the editorial board of the international scientific journals "Friction and Wear” and “Materials, Technology, Tools”. He was a member of Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE).

Research

Mark Petrokovets’ scientific work was associated with geometric and thermal calculations of metal-polymer gears, the development of methods for calculating thin-layer plain bearings, assessment of the deformity of polymers. He developed original approaches to solving the problems of tribology, which can include

the problems of modeling discrete friction contact,
the development of calculated methods of determining the actual area of touch,
the creation of an adequate model of friction and wear of polymers and composite materials.

In the last decade of his life, Mark Petrokovets was actively engaged in the problems of discrete contact at the nanometer scale. He is the author of more than 100 scientific works and publications, including 7 monographs.^[2] Mark Petrokovets was a co-author of the collective monograph "Tribology. Research and applications: The experience of the USA and ex-USSR", published simultaneously in English and Russian.^[3]