Professor Franek was educated at the Vienna University of Technology (TU Wien), taking his Dipl.-Ing. in 1976 and Dr.techn. in mechanical engineering in 1981. His career was devoted to the Institute for Precision Engineering of TU Wien. From 1976 - 1998 he was also a consultant, later CEO at Tribotechnik Forschungsges. m.b.H., Vienna, where he began and developed his lifelong collaboration with industry to solve real-world problems. He rose to Head of the Department for Tribology in 1985 and remained in full time service to TU Wien until his retirement in 2014. He also served as lecturer at Fachhochschule Wiener Neustadt für Wirtschaft und Technik, from 1995 - 2001 and also from 2012 - 2016. Throughout his long career at TU Wien he was active in research in hydrodynamic lubricated journal bearings and precision engineering, characterisation of friction and wear of various tribological systems, polymer materials for tribosystems, high temperature wear, biomimetics, and micro- and nano-tribology, publishing over 150 technical papers. He is regarded as the most distinguished tribologist in Austria, serving as the President of the Austrian Tribology Society, and he is very widely respected internationally. In 2002 he was awarded the Austrian First Class Cross of Honour for Science and Arts. Professor Franek has given distinguished and unstinting service to the Austrian and international Tribology community. He is an outstanding conference organiser, and his chairmanship of the highly successful 2nd World Tribology Congress, Vienna 2001, is regarded as a landmark in the dissemination of tribology. He was also one of the founders and organisers of the biennial conference series Viennano and ECOTRIB (European Conference on Tribology). These conferences have had a major global impact on the advances in the field. Professor Franek’s career has always emphasised the transfer of technology to industry in order to apply the economic benefits of the subject. His work has also had a major influence on public health, and notably served as Administrative and Scientific Director of the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Hip Endoprosthetics and Orthopaedic Implantology in Vienna from 2002 - 2005. Professor Franek’s crowning achievement has been the visionary leadership he gave to the foundation, establishment and direction of the Austrian Centre for Competence in Tribology (2002). In just ten years the Centre has grown to some 150 employees, which has collaborated with over 100 manufacturing companies to solve real-world problems involving tribology. It is now one of the leading institutions in tribology world-wide. Professor Friedrich Franek has been instrumental in establishing Austria as a leading country in the field of Tribology and it is most appropriate that he is the first Austrian winner of the international Tribology Gold Medal.