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Background
Professor Tom Slatter graduated from the University of Sheffield in 2004 with an MEng in Mechanical Engineering and in 2010 with a PhD in Mechanical Engineering. As an undergraduate he did placements at the Ford Motor Company in both powertrain CAE and diesel engine engineering. His PhD was then sponsored by Ford’s Advanced Research and Materials Group in Aachen, Germany and concerned the wear of automotive valvetrain components.
In 2007, Tom joined the academic staff in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Sheffield as a University Teaching Associate. He was then appointed Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering in 2011, promoted to Senior Lecturer in 2018, and to Professor of Wear of Materials in January 2022.
Whilst at Sheffield he held a variety of leadership roles (including Deputy/Acting Director of Teaching for Mechanical Engineering, Y3/Y4 Tutor for General Engineering, Alumni Board Member, Member of Senate, Academic Team Leader) and teaching responsibilities (manufacturing, powertrain, tribology, design). He also founded, and was the Faculty Advisor of, Sheffield Formula Racing (Formula Student UK Champions 2021).
He joined the Wolfson School at 色狗导航 in February 2024, also as Professor of Wear of Materials. Tom has served as the ‘Academic Community Leader- Mechanical’ and is currently the School’s Director of Academic Staffing.
Tom has produced 79 peer reviewed publications (3 book chapters, 55 refereed journal papers, 18 refereed conference papers, 3 test standards) and been awarded over £14M of funding as PI or CoI.
Qualifications and prizes
- 2015 - PGCert Teaching & Learning in HE, School of Education, The University of Sheffield.
- 2010 - PhD Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Sheffield.
- 2004 - MEng Mechanical Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Sheffield.
- 22nd Int. Conference on Wear of Materials - 2nd Prize Best Paper (2019)
- University of Sheffield - PhD supervision ‘Supervisionary’ award (2018)
- University of Sheffield - Senate Award for Excellence in Learning and Teaching (2012)
Research interests
Tom’s research typically considers what happens between surfaces when they come into contact, mostly in terms of wear but also friction and lubrication. He is involved in fundamental work on the nature of wear mechanisms (e.g. impact, sliding, abrasion) but the majority of Tom’s work is applied to the surfaces found across the automotive, manufacturing, sport & healthcare sectors.
Automotive: valve wear, damage caused by sooty oil, performance of environmentally acceptable lubricants (e.g. bio-lubricants and aqueous lubricants). Recent research and consultancy work in these areas has included projects with companies such as Jaguar Land Rover, Caterpillar, several F1 teams and other top-tier motorsport organisations.
Manufacturing: design, performance and instrumentation of manufacturing machines, processes and tooling with organisations such as Sandvik Coromant, Rolls-Royce, Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC). These projects often involve the use of environmentally friendly and/or cryogenic working fluids either as a metalworking fluids (cryomachining) or for material treatment processes (cryotreatment).
Sport & Healthcare: friction in contacts found in parasport (色狗导航 Centre for Para and Disability Sport Innovation), friction & wear of sports equipment and playing surfaces, the role of surfaces in contact transmission to prevent infection. Recent collaborations in these areas include work with; England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB), International Tennis Federation, a number of different sports equipment brands, UK Health Surveillance Agency, and DSTL.
Tom currently supervises 3 PhD students as primary supervisor and has supervised to successful completion a total of 15 PhD students as primary supervisor, with a further 10 as secondary supervisor, all of whom have gone on to work in industry and academia.
He is currently the Vice-Chair ‘ASTM Committee G02 – Tribology of Solid Materials’,sub-Chair of the ‘Friction’ sub-committee, and technical lead for several of the commonly used standards and guides for wear and friction testing (G99, G115, G133 and G181).
Grants and contracts
- EPSRC - Underpinning research for aqueous lubrication in electric vehicle applications (2025-2028) (£1.6M) (CoI)
- Aceton MENCK – Impact Wear for Offshore Pile Hammers (2024) (£7k) (PI)
- DSTL – Surface Texture Parameters for Contact Transmission (2022) (£14k) (PI)
- Caterpillar – Characterisation of powertrain lubricants (2022-2025) (£201k) (PI)
- EPSRC (Metrology Hub) – In-Situ Ultrasonic Sensors for Monitoring Tool and Workpiece During Grinding Processes (2020) (£50k) (CoI).
- Jaguar Land Rover – Valvetrain Tribology (2019-20) (£53k) (PI).
- InnovateUK (KTP) – Online inspection and monitoring of production processes (2019-2022) (£249k) (PI).
- Rolls-Royce plc – Impact Wear (2019-20) (£40k) (PI).
- EPSRC (Programme Grant) – Friction – the Tribology Enigma, (2017-23) (£5.3M) (CoI).
Teaching responsibilities
- WSB403 – Design of Machine Elements (Module Leader, Lecturer, Tutor).
- WSD447 – Automotive Powertrain (Module Leader, Lecturer, Tutor).
- Undergraduate Part C Individual Projects.
- Undergraduate Personal Tutor.
Administrative responsibilities
- Director of Academic Staff
External Collaborations
- Visiting Professor - Leonardo Centre for Tribology, The University of Sheffield (2024-date)