David Tabor (né Tabrisky), FRS (23 October 1913 – 26 November 2005)[1] was a British physicist who was an early pioneer of tribology, the study of frictional interaction between surfaces, and well known for his influential undergraduate textbook "Gases, Liquids and Solids".
His father had been a non-commissioned officer in, and armourer to, the Russian Imperial Army, and had run a business as a gunsmith and metalworker.
On coming to England, he established a small metalworking business specialising in customised fittings and designs.
Tabor was educated at the Portobello Road Primary School, Regent Street Polytechnic Secondary School, and Imperial College London (to which he won a scholarship), then went to Cambridge to undertake research in the Department of Chemistry.
[6] Much of Tabor's tribology research was performed alongside Frank Philip Bowden,[7][8][9][10][11] with whom he published his popular book 'The Friction and Lubrication of Solids'.