Dear Philadelphia Section STLE Members,

On behalf of the STLE Philadelphia Section executive committee officers, I want to welcome you to the 2017–2018 Program Year.

One thing I’ve definitely learned over the past four years on the board is the importance of education to our section, more importantly, educating the STLE youth of tomorrow.  This is achieved by utilizing 100% of program contributions to supporting these efforts.  For example during the 2016-2017 program year your contributions enabled: 1) $12,000 in scholarship money to local graduate and undergraduate students, 2) $700 in awards to students in grades 7-10 for projects related to “Lubrication and Corrosion” presented in the Delaware Valley Science Fair, 3) and along with the support of several local manufacturers we also had a very successful kick-off to our STEM initiative at the Norristown school district with Quaker Chemical.

As a Philadelphia Section STLE Member, you help us support our education efforts by engaging in a little “cultivation of lubrication knowledge” yourself when you attend one of our monthly seminars.  Of course these meetings also double as a wonderful networking opportunity and our annual Ed Haney golf outing has been known to add in a little fun along the way.

The vision for this year’s program came about while reflecting on notes from a presentation by Dr. Martin Webster (ExxonMobil) on “Global Trends in Tribology”, during the January 2017 Philadelphia STLE Nanotribology Meeting.  In particular, several statements from his presentation resonated with me:

1) “Turbocharging runs internal combustion in a more efficient part of the cycle”. The internal combustion engine: much can be done to improve efficiency.
2) “Innovations in base stock technology will be critical to future engines”
3) “Electric vehicles driven by green electrons”
4) “Maybe there should be a project to evaluate such concepts”, as High Temperature Capable Materials.  There is a lot of research in this area, but not much energy is going into lubricants.
5) And finally, Bio-mimetics and “knee joints with porcine gastric mucin and a mu coefficient of 0.001-0.04”!

You will find that many of our program topics overlap nicely with these concepts.

Without the support of our executive committee members and the organizations that support them, none of this would be possible.  In particular, I would like to take a moment to thank our program chair, Dr. Neil Canter (Chemical Solutions) for his unwavering support to our local section during the entirety of my tenure on the board.  Neil’s connectedness to the industry and commitment to our section is truly unrivaled.  I would also like to take a moment to thank Tom O’Brien (Lubrizol), immediate past chairman, for fearlessly maintaining the responsibility of chairman while I acclimated to a new career.  Finally, I want to extend my gratitude to the 2016-2017 executive committee for their contributions to another very successful year.

With that, I am pleased to introduce this year’s officers:

  • Vice Chair:  Rick Nachenberg (PCC Chemax)
  • Treasurer:  Linda Pascali (Sea-Land)
  • Secretary:  Ricardo Gomes (Evonik)
  • Programs:  Neil Canter (Chemical Solutions)
  • Arrangements:  Ed Cass (Paratherm)
  • Scholarships:  Eric Marasco (ARG); Elena McDaniel (NIS); William Tuszynski (The Unami Group)
  • Career:  Shana McCabe (Ingevity)
  • Web Technology:  Stephanie Zublick (Harry Miller)
  • Membership:  April Stevens (Monson)
  • Social:  John Irwin (J.A.M. Distributing)
  • STEM:  Dan Domin (Quaker Chemical); James Brooks (RichardsApex)
  • Golf:  Christy Henley (Sea-Land); Doug Placek (Evonik)

I look forward to meeting you at our section meetings, so come join us, and expand your knowledge of topics relevant to the fields of tribology and lubrication sciences.

Warm Regards,
Mandi McElwain
Hangsterfer’s
2017–2018 Chairman