STUDENTS AND MENTORS

ON A RECENT WEEKEND AFTERNOON IN NEW YORK, I was paired off at a local golf course with a mechanical engineering student who will be entering his junior year at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute this month.

While I suspect that Jesse was more interested in talking about the conditions of the greens than engineering that day, he nonetheless humored me as I asked him about his course work and his professors, and also about his career aspirations. Jesse is bright and holds an excellent GPA; he’s articulate and he’s ambitious. His golf game is pretty good, too. He said he is considering graduate work if engineering job prospects remain strong.

If my new friend does enter graduate school in two years, he’ll join more than 18,000 mechanical engineering students who are in graduate programs—as you discovered if you flipped to this column from the previous page. According to data from the National Science Foundation, out of 10 areas of study, only electrical engineering has more graduate students than mechanical engineering.

There are telling reasons why more than 131,000 students are enrolled in graduate-level engineering programs throughout the United States. Two of them are simple ones that Jesse told me after hitting a perfect shot off a tee: “Engineering is pretty cool, and I really like my teachers.”

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On July 4, the magazine lost a good friend and the engineering world a noble role model. William Begell, the former chair of our editorial advisory board, passed away in New York City. Bill was 82.

The following is an excerpt from a column I wrote in June 2006:

“Being editor of this magazine has its privileges. One of the highest is meeting someone who, through the years, has become not just a dear friend but also a source of personal inspiration: William Begell.

“Bill, an ASME Fellow, has been the recipient of many awards throughout his life, mostly for his engineering work, especially in the area of heat transfer.

William Begell

“Last month, I was invited to attend the Fifth Annual Heritage Luncheon at the Center for Jewish History in New York City, where Bill received the Vilna Award. Bill Begell is a Holocaust survivor and his story, as is true of the tales of other survivors, is one of infinite bravery and determination.

“His personal story—chronicled by director Stephen Spielberg while gathering information for film projects—reads like a novel of intrigue. Bill was born in the city of Vilna, then in Poland. At age 17, after heeding the thinly veiled warnings of Maj. Karl Plagge, a German army officer, Bill jumped out of a window to flee a labor camp and begin a long road toward freedom.

“The 61 years that have transpired between that day and today have been filled with a mixture of personal tragedy and professional accomplishments. Through it all, Bill Begell remains a strong advocate for ASME and a stirring role model for everyone.”

—John G. Falcioni, Editor-in-Chief
He can be reached by e-mail at falcionij@asme.org