Tribology Minor Industrial Advisory Board

Dr. Larry Beaver is Vice President of Research & Development at RSC Bio Solutions. He oversees R&D and regulatory functions for the EnviroLogic®, and FUTERRA™ products.For over 30 years Dr. Beaver has been actively involved in the commercialization of safer consumer and industrial chemical products. His current research efforts focus on VGP-compliant cleaners, gear oils, greases and hydraulic fluids for land and marine applications.Dr. Beaver is the principal inventor on more than 14 patents. He is an active member of STLE and NLGI and currently serves on the Industry Advisory Board for the Tribology Minor in the College of Engineering at Auburn University.Dr. Beaver was granted a B.A. in Chemistry and Biology at Cedarville University and a Ph.D. in chemistry from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio.

Vasu Bala completed his PhD and Post Doctoral studies in Chemical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University. His research interest lies in the fundamentals of grease & lubricant rheology, additive synthesis and formulation development, mechanics of elastohydrodynamics and boundary lubrication, electrorheology, lubricant and material durability, wear characterization and frictional behavior. Dr. Bala was employed at Afton Chemical, Cognis-Henkel and BASF Corporations from 1993 to 2017, serving various capacities as Technical Advisor and Global Technical Director. Dr. Bala is currently employed by Tiarco LLC as Global Technical & Quality Director. His responsibilities include developing new grease & lubricant technologies for North American, European, Japanese, & Chinese automotive OEM driveline and industrial systems. Current and past affiliations: Alpha Chi National Honor Society, Tau Beta Phi National Engineering Honor Society, Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), TAE Germany, Industrial Tribology-UK, Society of Tribologists & Lubrication Engineers (STLE), National Lubricating Grease Institute (NLGI) and Who’s Who for Outstanding Scientists.

Tim Hall graduated from Auburn in 2014 with a BS in mechanical engineering and a tribology minor. Tim Hall was one of the first 5 students to graduate with the tribology minor and was given the opportunity to do research for Dr. Jackson in the tribology lab. Tim also went through Auburn's cooperative education program, working 2 semesters for Goodyear Tire and 2 semesters for Packaging Corporation of America. Tim started his career after college as a paper machine reliability engineer for Georgia Pacific in Perry, Florida. After about 2 months in this role, Tim was given the opportunity to lead the lubrication program in Perry. After serving in this role for about 1 year, Tim took a position as a regional reliability engineer for the building products division and has remained in that position for the past 5 years. Tim currently serves as the Lumber and Plywood division SME for Lubrication and Fluid Power and has had the opportunity to design lubrication programs from scratch for 3 brand new state of the art lumber mills. Tim Hall is also a licensed professional engineer in the state of North Carolina.

Maureen Hunter holds a doctorate degree in Chemical Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University. She is the Technical Service Manager of the Lubricant Additives Division at King Industries, Inc. in Norwalk, CT. She has been with King Industries since 1993. Maureen was the 2014-2015 President of STLE and the Editor of STLE’s TLT magazine from 2007-2009. She is currently STLE’s STEM Ambassador and on the Board of Directors for NLGI. Maureen joined the Auburn University Tribology Minor Advisory Board in 2011. Maureen has several technical publications to her merit.

John Sander, Vice President of Research & Development, Lubrication Engineers, Inc., has a BS in chemistry from Wichita State University and an MS in environmental science from Friends University. In 1989 he began his career at Lubrication Engineers, where he has been responsible for a variety of lubricant quality, formulation and testing activities. He holds CLS and OMA I certifications from STLE, and a CLGS certification from NLGI. His memberships include SAE, NLGI, ACS and STLE. He has authored or co-authored 20+ technical and marketing papers and one book chapter (Chapter 13: “Petroleum Oil Hydraulic Fluids” in the Handbook of Hydraulic Fluid Technology). He is a past winner of the NLGI Author’s Award.

Dr. Raj Shah is a Director at Koehler Instrument Company in Long Island, New York, where he has worked for more than 30 years in the areas of petroleum testing instrumentation, fuels, lubricants, grease technology, tribology, and standards development. He holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Penn state University and has been active for several decades in technical education, product development, laboratory testing, and professional service.

Dr. Shah has authored or co-authored more than 850 technical publications and has co-edited several major reference books, including the Fuels and Lubricants Handbook: Technology, Performance, Properties, and Testing and a recent Elsevier reference book on aviation fuels. His work has focused broadly on fuels, lubricants, greases, tribology, testing methods, instrumentation, sustainability, and emerging technologies.

He is an elected Fellow of several major professional organizations, including the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE), NLGI, the American Institute of Chemists (AIC), the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), the Institute of Measurement and Control (InstMC), the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE), the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), the Institute of Physics (IOP), the American Oil Chemists’ Society (AOCS), and the Energy Institute (EI). He is also a Chartered Engineer, Chartered Scientist, Chartered Chemist, Chartered Chemical Engineer, Chartered Petroleum Engineer, Certified Professional Chemist, and Certified Chemical Engineer.

Dr. Shah has received numerous professional honors, including the NLGI Achievement Award, the NLGI Fellows Award, the STLE P.M. Ku Medal, the NLGI John A. Bellanti Sr. Memorial Award, ASTM International’s Award of Merit and Fellow Award, the ASTM Eagle Award, and multiple ASTM Awards of Excellence. He was also inducted as an Eminent Engineer by Tau Beta Pi.

Dr. Shah is actively involved in ASTM, STLE, NLGI, IChemE, EI, RSC, AOCS, ACS, SAE, SPE, and other professional organizations. He has served in leadership roles in standards development, technical education, editorial activities, student mentoring, and industry outreach. He is especially interested in helping students and young professionals understand the importance of tribology in transportation, energy efficiency, sustainabilit, reliability, aerospace, electric vehicles, and future engineering technologies and can be reached at rshah@koehlerinstrument.com

Zhang is experienced in lubricant design, testing, and manufacturing for various applications. He earned Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering with emphasis of tribology and advanced lubricant development. He is currently working for drive system engineering of Tesla and leading fluid engineering and lubricant related subjects for all current and future Tesla platforms (Model S/X/3/Y, Semi, etc.). He is responsible and involved in subjects related to cooling and lubrication of Tesla drive units. Zhang developed and published lubrication and cooling specifications in the electric vehicle field. With advanced fluid development along with cooling and lubrication design, efficiency, durability, and continuous power of vehicles are improved. Zhang has won multiple awards including SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award, Edison Award, and Journal of Tribology Best Reviewer. He is also a member of ASME, SME, STLE, NLGI and ASTM, and serving as associate editor of ASME Journal of Tribology.

Jake Finn graduated from Auburn University with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and a minor in Tribology, the study of friction, wear, and lubrication. Today Jake works as a lubrication engineer helping to make things run smoothly and efficiently at manufacturing plants, trucks shops, and anywhere machinery is utilized. At Auburn, Jake played sousaphone in the Auburn University Marching Band and had the honor of being Drum Major for two years. Jake also served as a member of the 313th Army Reserve Band in Birmingham, AL

Kuldeep Kishore Mistry, PhD, Senior Research Scientist, Chevron-Oronite Company, (A Chevron Corporation company). 20+ years’ experience in corporate R&D of Lubricant Additives, Greases, Formulation for Engine & Driveline applications within Automotive & Industrial & Marine product lines. Led cross-functional teams in developing lubricants and greases, from benchtop chemistry through scale-up, meeting evolving industry specification. Managed multi-million-dollar research projects & programs. Applied statistical concepts and tools for experimental design and data analysis. Contributed inventorship on multiple patent applications.

Rob Mulkern is the OEM and Performance Grease Group Lead at FUCHS Lubricants, where he manages projects focused on developing and optimizing grease technologies to meet customer and OEM requirements. He has 15 years of experience in the grease industry, with expertise in grease formulation, tribology, and additive technology, with a particular focus on the development and performance evaluation of specialty greases.

Rob holds a B.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Massachusetts and a Master’s Certificate in Tribology from Auburn University. He is a Certified Lubricating Grease Specialist (CLGS) and also holds a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt from Purdue University.

He is actively involved with both the National Lubricating Grease Institute (NLGI) and the Society of Tribologists and Lubrication Engineers (STLE).

Douglas Sackett is Senior Technical Advisor for Dilmar Oil Co., Inc. He was previously senior field engineer/blender QA/QC manager for TotalEnergies USA. He has more than 25 years in the lubrication industry focusing on power generation and industrial applications, including power production and mining, and providing lubrication services, lubricant selection, oil sampling, oil reclamation, filtration and vacuum dehydration, and filter selection to ensure oil quality and purification standards for ensuring a best-in-class reliability lubrication program. He redesigned a complete lubrication delivery program and a complete lubrication program for phosphate plants.

Sackett previously served as general manager for a lubricant distributorship for 12 years, helping develop the most stringent requirements for the delivery of bulk and package lubricants to the end-user. He was first runner-up for Maintenance and Technology Magazine’s Innovator of the Year Award in 2012 for the delivery processes and procedures ensuring ISO cleanliness specifications to the end user.

He holds the STLE Certified Lubrication Specialist™ (CLS) certification and is the immediate past chair of the STLE CLS Certification Committee as well as a member of the STLE Executive Committee. He also served as a TLT Technical Editor in 2018.

Sackett received the STLE Raymond L. Thibault Excellence in Education Award in 2024, given to an STLE member who has demonstrated dedication to passionate and influential work as an educator in practical aspects of tribology and lubrication engineering which benefits the STLE community.