Prof. Mitjan Kalin was elected President of the International Tribology Council (ITC) for a four-year term at the 8th World Tribology Congress, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in September 2026.
Prof. Kalin has taken over the leadership of the ITC as the third president in the organisation’s modern era, succeeding Prof. A. Erdemir (Texas A&M, USA) and Prof. N. Spencer (ETH Zurich, Switzerland). Prior to them, the organisation was led from its establishment in 1973 until 2016 by its founder, Dr Peter Jost (UK), who pioneered tribology as an independent scientific discipline.
The ITC has been a corresponding member of UNESCO since 1996 and brings together representative tribology organisations from nearly 60 countries.
During his four-year term, Prof. Kalin will focus not only on organising the 9th World Tribology Congress, which will take place in Munich, Germany, in 2030, but also on strengthening links between member organisations, supporting the activities of smaller member organisations in particular, and encouraging all members to take a more active role in promoting tribology and highlighting its importance for sustainable engineering development. He also aims to foster closer cooperation in advancing scientific and technological achievements across the broader fields of tribology, contact engineering and surface science.
Leading a global organisation representing an entire professional and scientific field is a significant recognition for the engineering community in Slovenia as a whole and, in particular, a testament to Slovenia’s leading role in the field of tribology.