Frank E. Talke, 2018 Honorary Member

Frank E. Talke, Ph.D., professor of mechanical engineering and endowed chair at the Center for Memory and Recording Research at the University of California, San Diego, is honored for contributions to information storage technology, color ink jet printing and medical device technology.

Dr. Talke began his career at the IBM Research and Development Laboratories in San Jose, Calif., in 1969. He joined the department of applied mechanics and engineering science at UC San Diego in 1986.

Dr. Talke made seminal contributions in tribology of magnetic recording systems and in the development of a prototype drop-on-demand color ink jet printer. He performed pioneering studies in applying laser Doppler vibrometry to hard disk drives, and in studying novel lubricants and additives for the head/disk interface.

More recently, Dr. Talke has become interested in medical device technology, studying 3-D printed disposable endoscopes and miniaturized intraocular pressure sensors for implantation in the human eye.

Dr. Talke has authored/co-authored more than 350 archived journal articles. He holds 11 patents with two pending.

An ASME Fellow, Dr. Talke most recently served as a member of the Committee on Honors (2011-17) and as a member of the Information Storage and Processing Systems Executive Committee (2004-18). He received the ASME Medal in 2008, the Mayo D. Hersey Award in 2010 and the ISPS Division’s Distinguished Institution Award in 2012.

Dr. Talke is a Fellow of the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers, and IEEE. Among his other honors, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering in 1999 and was awarded the 2010 Tribology Gold Medal by the Tribology Trust administered by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

Dr. Talke received his diplom-ingenieur degree from the University of Stuttgart in Germany in 1965. He earned his master’s and Ph.D. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 1966 and 1968, respectively. He holds an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Munich.

Video profile produced and written by Roger Torda and edited by Juan Yepes.

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