Page 31 - Fuels & Lubes International 2014 - Q2

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FUELS & LUBES INTERNATIONAL Volume 20 Issue 2
decades of experience retire, less-experienced
new hires replace them, and this phenomenon
is only going to increase as current work-
ers age. The difficulty of replacing so many
retirees leads to, as the report calls it, “a gap
between necessary skills and the available
talent.” One strategy for addressing this issue
is providing adequate training to improve
younger employees’ skills, and STLE offers
many resources for this, especially through its
STLE University trainings and certifications.
STLE is also increasing its efforts to reach
out to students of tribology. Two hundred
of its individual members are students. This
fall, STLE is hosting a new conference called
Tribology Frontiers that offers some special
opportunities for students. Students will
have the opportunity to attend a career fair
and to give 30-minute presentations (instead
of a poster presentation). These are ways
for students to make contact with potential
employers. Both Salek and Heverly emphasize
that now more than ever, it is important that
young people become interested in tribology
as a career. STLE’s efforts offer incentives for
promising students to get involved during
their university education.
Since it is not tied to a country or a com-
mercial interest, STLE has a pure interest in
helping companies and individuals thrive in
the industry and its changing climate. Its large
coalition of volunteers reflects this. Volun-
teers help with everything from organizing
conferences to editing publications to giving
webinars. Salek says that “most people in
science and engineering have the sense that
what they’re doing matters beyond the narrow
application they might be working on, and
things that they do can have huge effects for
lots and lots of people... I think that’s probably
why we have so many volunteers.”
Business practices change, and the very
nature of the workforce changes too. STLE looks
to the future of the industry by setting examples
of how to adapt to these changes. But also, in
the words of Heverly, “it’s a community.” It is
a group of people who are passionate about
something—tribology—and who want to take
every opportunity to learn from each other
and help each other succeed.
Ed Salek during a visit to
China, shown here with
Professor Junyan Zhang,
a distinguished tribologist
from the Lanzhou Institute
of Chemical Physics.
Rob Heverly with Luis
Urrutia, an officer of the STLE
Guatemala section, during
the meeting of the STLE Latin
American section in Santa
Cruz, Bolivia in 2012.
This fall, STLE is
hosting a new
conference called
Tribology Frontiers
that offers some
special opportunities
for students.