Robert James Knoyle Wood is a Professor of Surface Engineering and Tribology at the University of Southampton and has 30 years of experience in tribology and surface engineering. He spent four years at BP before returning to Southampton to re-establish surface engineering/tribology research. His group was awarded £10M from EPSRC in 2008 to create the National Centre for Advanced Tribology at Southampton (nCATS) and was awarded a further £3M for research into Green Tribology. He is the Chair of UK Tribology. He was elected Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 2016. He was awarded the Annual Donald Julius Groen Prize in 2011, the Tribology Trust Silver Medal in 2018, and the Tom Bell Medal for Surface Engineering in 2022 for his outstanding achievements in tribology and surface engineering. He has research interests that span the application of lubrication, wear and friction science to current and next-generation critical machine components such as bearings, transmissions, turbines, pumps, renewable energy systems and electrification of transportation. His research projects look at detecting wear, corrosion, friction and lubrication using these measurements to improve condition monitoring of machines, including EVs and aeroengine fan blades, and to optimise surface engineering for extended service life and energy efficiency and to drive tribology-based digital twins and machine learning development.