ASME commemorated the 125th anniversary of its Codes & Standards program with a reception at the Annual Meeting last month honoring the ASME volunteers who participate in the Society’s codes and standards and conformity assessment programs — a global operation involving more than 4,000 individuals.
ASME commemorated the 125th anniversary of its Codes & Standards program with a reception at the Annual Meeting last month honoring the ASME volunteers who participate in the Society’s codes and standards and conformity assessment programs — a global operation involving more than 4,000 individuals.
+ President Barack Obama sent a letter congratulating ASME on the 125th anniversary of its Codes & Standards program. Thomas Loughlin, ASME executive director, read the letter to the audience at the Annual Meeting Codes & Standards reception, where a copy was also displayed.
Among the guest speakers at the gathering were June Ling, associate executive director, Codes and Standards, who provided opening remarks, and ASME Executive Director Thomas Loughlin, who read a letter from President Barack Obama commending ASME on the success and endurance of its Codes & Standards endeavors.
Thomas Barlow, who was completing the last days of his one-year term as ASME president at the time of the reception, offered his gratitude to the volunteers involved in the various ASME Codes & Standards activities. “We know that our standards system promotes the public safety and reliability, just as it enhances the competitive nature of industry,” Barlow said. “Though you work behind the scenes, where the public rarely sees it, ASME sees firsthand the contributions made by thousands of engineers throughout each year. You provide the technical expertise and intellectual vitality of the standards system. We also appreciate the leadership that continues to build on traditional strengths of consensus, openness, and transparency and today provides a quality system that values speed, relevance and ever greater and more diverse interests of a global scope.”
+ Mutsuhiro Arinobu, president of the Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers, thanked ASME volunteers and staff for collaborating with his association on a number of joint Codes & Standards projects.
Introducing the reception’s next guest speaker, Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers President Mutsuhiro Arinobu, Barlow expressed his appreciation for that organization’s collaborations on ASME on codes and standards groups, especially the Boiler and Pressure Vessel Committee and the Board on Nuclear Codes and Standards. “Our two societies have shared a good relationship for many years, both in sponsoring joint conferences and in standards setting,” Barlow observed. “We also share an understanding of the changing roles of engineers, educational and industry growth issues, strategies, and challenges in today’s world and for the next generation of engineers. We share, as well, a vision for promoting an open culture for knowledge sharing that encourages innovation. There are many JSME representatives active on all levels, whose support has been instrumental in development of current standards.”
Just prior to a presentation of the video “125 Years of ASME in the Making,” which incorporated interviews with a number of ASME Codes & Standards volunteers and staff, Bernard Hrubala, senior vice president of Codes & Standards, read aloud from Senate Resolution 179. The resolution, which congratulated ASME on its many years of codes and standards achievements, had been introduced the previous week on the Senate floor by Sen. Ted Kaufman, D-Del.
+ June Ling (at the podium), associate executive director, Codes & Standards, welcomes guests at the reception celebrating Codes & Standards' 125th anniversary. Also providing remarks during the event were (left to right) Bernard Hrubala, senior vice president of Codes & Standards; Japan Society of Mechanical Engineers President Mutsuhiro Arinobu, ASME's Executive Director Thomas Loughlin; and Thomas Barlow, who ended his term as ASME president at the Annual Meeting.
Presenting the resolution on June 9, Kaufman said, “Now, to you non-engineers, codes and standards developed by and for mechanical engineers may sound like a lot of jargon and, candidly, like pretty boring stuff. But as an engineer, I am proud to say that I believe that the nuts and bolts of how to build things, how to create, how to standardize and grow equipment and industries have been at the very heart of the American economic growth-engine for more than a century. That kind of nuts and bolts thinking and creativity will be what leads America out of this recession and toward sustained economic growth once again. So I'm pleased that the Senate has joined me in celebrating a success story of American engineering.”
To read Sen. Kaufman’s complete statement, visit http://kaufman.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=adeae956-b33a-43fc-ab78-4f6ae778c740. To read Senate Resolution 179, visit http://files.asme.org/asmeorg/18626.pdf.