What type of leader are you?
By Dr. Hong Liang, STLE President | TLT President's Report July 2023
Volunteering with STLE provides diverse opportunities for growth and innovation.
STLE has been a leader in the field of lubrication and tribology for nearly 80 years. STLE has made a huge impact not only on our fields, but also, more importantly, on its members and people around the world. Do you know that since its establishment in 1944, there have been 49,545 unique individuals as members of our society? According to my friend Ed Salek, STLE executive director, this number does not take into account the thousands of nonmembers who have, over the years, attended a formerly American Society of Lubrication Engineers (ASLE) or STLE meeting, taken an education course or contributed to a journal. Today, STLE’s reach of about 14,000 individuals are working toward sustaining the performance of lubricants, bearings, mechanical and biological systems and advancing knowledge and technology to face unexpected, changing and great challenges. How did STLE do that? Well, STLE shapes the careers of many and develops leaders for our fields—like you.
This reminds me of a leader, a historical figure, Benjamin Franklin (January 1706-April 1790). He was a politician, writer, printer and a physicist. In 1774, he did a well-known experiment by putting a teaspoon of oil into a pond to prove an idea using oil to calm the waves over water. The oil film could be observed with just a few angstroms in thickness, even a molecular layer. Although spreading oil is prohibited today for environmental protection, Franklin was among the first to apply wetting behavior between oil, water and air to real life situations. Today, lubrication engineers and tribologists have developed many technologies to clean up oil spread. They also have been advancing in eliminating emulsion by reducing water content in oil. We want to know more about their work and find out who they are, because they are the leaders in an area that is important to us, and they are making historical impacts on society.
You see, there are so many types of leadership in work and life. For a science and technology society like STLE, there are visionary thinkers, game changers, innovators, problem solvers, mentors and motivators, influencers, diversity/culture includers and many, many more. Throughout the years, I have met many during the STLE annual meetings. I have witnessed the growth and maturity of our fellow members and friends. In recent years, more people are attending the STLE annual meeting from all over the world. Among those, noticeably there are more women than before. One of the key changes I observed is that more women have taken on leadership positions in their organizations.
During the year of my service as STLE president, I’m on the quest to recognize impacts of our society and discover and learn about the contributions to the field of lubrication and tribology from our membership. What you might not realize is that your effort might have advanced our knowledge or technology, and you are a leader in the industry—even by contributing in a small way. So, what type of leader are you?
Dr. Hong Liang is Oscar S. Wyatt Jr. Professor of the J. Mike Walker ’66 Department of Mechanical Engineering at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas. You can reach her at hliang@tamu.edu.