Michael J. Furey honored with emeritus status

Michael J. Furey, of Blacksburg, professor of mechanical engineering in the College of Engineering at Virginia Tech, was conferred with the title "Professor Emeritus" by the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors during the board's quarterly meeting Monday, March 14.

The title of emeritus may be conferred on retired professors and associate professors, administrative officers, librarians, and exceptional staff members who have given exemplary service to the university and who are specially recommended to the board of visitors by Virginia Tech President Charles W. Steger. Nominated individuals who are approved by the board of visitors receive an emeritus certificate from the university.

A member of the Virginia Tech faculty for 35 years, Furey was a dedicated teacher and advisor to numerous undergraduate and graduate students during his career. His teaching and research focused on tribology — the study of friction, wear and lubrication. He has been a leading contributor of research in the areas of friction and wear of sliding bearing surfaces, lubricant technology, tribopolymerization, and animal and human joint function, and has published more than 100 scientific papers.

Furey is an active member of the American Society of Lubrication Engineering and the Society of Tribology and Lubrication Engineers, and was a leader in the International Congresses on Tribology. He is the only American to be elected as an honorary member of the Polish Tribological Society.

Furey received his bachelor's and Ph.D. degrees from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and a master's degree from the University of Rochester.

The College of Engineering at Virginia Tech is internationally recognized for its excellence in 14 engineering disciplines and computer science. The college's 5,600 undergraduates benefit from an innovative curriculum that provides a "hands-on, minds-on" approach to engineering education, complementing classroom instruction with two unique design-and-build facilities and a strong Cooperative Education Program. With more than 50 research centers and numerous laboratories, the college offers its 2,000 graduate students opportunities in advanced fields of study such as biomedical engineering, state-of-the-art microelectronics, and nanotechnology.

Founded in 1872 as a land-grant college, Virginia Tech has grown to become the largest university in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Today, Virginia Tech's eight colleges are dedicated to putting knowledge to work through teaching, research, and outreach activities, and to fulfilling its vision to be among the top research universities in the nation. At its 2,600-acre main campus located in Blacksburg, and other campus centers in northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, Richmond, and Roanoke, Virginia Tech enrolls 28,000 full- and part-time undergraduate and graduate students from all 50 states and more than 100 countries in 170 academic degree programs.