Jennifer R. Vail

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Jennifer R. Vail

A woman with long brown hair smiles at the camera, resting her chin on her hand. She wears a burgundy jacket and a gold necklace, with a dark gray background behind her.

Jennifer R. Vail is the founder of DuPont’s first tribology research lab and a member of the senior leadership team at TA Instruments. Her 2019 TED Talk, The Science of Friction, has been viewed more than two million times. She is the author of Friction.

Everything Articles
Book cover titled "Friction: A Biography" by Jennifer R. Vail, featuring an image of a matchstick angled on a matchbox striker—capturing the spark of friction—set against a light blue background.
Business
How “tribology” became a new industrial science
The deep study of friction and surfaces — so crucial to industrial manufacture — emerged from a mid-century engineering conference.
Jennifer R. Vail
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