Seize the day
Dr. Martin Webster | TLT President's Report October 2015
Local section programs provide valuable opportunities to do something different.
A group shot outside of the Singh Center for Nanotechnology. From left to right: William Tuszynski, Neil Canter, Robert Carpick and Mary Moon. (Photo courtesy of John Irwin.)
CARPE DIEM IS AN EXPRESSION THAT GAINED POPULARITY after its use in the film Dead Poets Society. In the film, the late Robin Williams, playing English teacher John Keating, encourages his high school students to follow poet John Herrick’s advice and “gather ye rosebuds while ye may.” These days we have an increasingly bewildering choice of how to spend our time, and it can seem difficult to find opportunities to truly seize the day. One such opportunity came my way earlier this year.
My STLE local group, the Philadelphia Section, puts on an excellent yearly program. STLE Past President and Philadelphia Section arrangements chair Bill Wambach sends out constant reminders so there is no excuse for not knowing the where, what and when of each event. One meeting in particular caught my eye as the focus was on nanotechnology and was scheduled at the new Singh Center for Nanotechnology at the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn).
The day eventually arrived, and I had made arrangements to travel with my good friend and another STLE Past President Andy Jackson. Andy, who is now a professor of practice at UPenn, had invited me to tour its tribology labs prior to attending the section meeting. We traveled the 36 miles into Philadelphia on a local train that stopped at a staggering 22 stations. However, the 72-minute journey allowed us to catch up with each other’s news, as we had not seen each other for a while.
On arrival we toured several of UPenn’s tribology labs, and I met with some postgraduate students. The lab specializes in atomic force microscopy and in-situ high-vacuum tribology experiments and is at the cutting edge in these fields. Recently one of their papers was published in the journal Science and is helping us understand how antiwear additives really work. I also spent a few minutes talking with STLE-member professor Robert Carpick on ideas for STLE’s Tribology Frontier’s Conference. Rob had generously agreed to help host the section meeting, and following the discussions we made our way over to the meeting venue.
At the start of the meeting I congratulated the section on its continued financial and volunteer support of the Delaware Valley Science Fair and informed them that they had just been selected to receive this year’s Outstanding Section Award. They were naturally very pleased to hear the good news.
The technical program included nanotechnology presentations from two of Rob’s students, both of whom benefited from scholarships from the Philadelphia Section. Both talks were informative, but I was most struck by the professional style in which they were presented. I don’t recall my own graduate student efforts being quite as poised, and it left me feeling that the new generation of tribologists will represent our technology extremely well. The third talk was given by STLE-member Mary Moon who enlightened us on some of the opportunities and challenges of using nanoparticles for lubrication.
The event continued with a guided tour of the Singh Center. To describe the facility as mind blowing is an understatement. The center houses state-of-the-art fabrication and characterization facilities that are available to local industrial and research collaborators.
On my train journey home I had time to reflect on a remarkable day. I had managed to catch up with an old friend, visited a top university-based tribology lab, discussed the future of tribology conferences with one of our leading academics, had my faith in the future of tribology research reinforced by two excellent young researchers, learned from an experienced researcher about some of the more practical aspects of applying nanotechnology to lubrication and seen an engine for high technology growth in one of our inner cities. Not a bad collection of rosebuds gathered over the day.
I invite you to check out your local section programs—and be prepared to seize your day!
Martin Webster is a senior research associate for ExxonMobil Research and Engineering in Annandale, N.J. You can reach him at martin.n.webster@exxonmobil.com.