ASME President
2008-2009

Thomas M. Barlow is the 127th president of ASME, serving the 2008-2009 term.  A longtime member of ASME, Barlow has participated on numerous technical, regional and Society-wide committees and boards and has demonstrated a strong record of support and leadership in student outreach, membership development, technology and engineering diversity.  He is a Fellow of ASME and served as a member of the ASME Board of Governors from 2003 to 2006.

During his association with ASME, Barlow has served within the local, regional and technical division structures of the Society, including leadership participation on the Council on Engineering and the Council on Public Affairs.  He also chaired the Subcommittee on Rules as a member of the Board of Governors’ Committee on Organization and Rules and was founder and chair of the Energy Storage and Transport Technologies Committee. In the area of student outreach, Barlow served as a judge in student competitions and played a key role in developing ASME’s annual university-level Human-Powered Vehicle Challenge while serving on the Council on Member Affairs.  Among many other ASME affiliations, he is a member of the ASME Auxiliary and served on the Editorial Advisory Board of Mechanical Engineering magazine, ASME’s flagship publication.

Barlow enjoyed a 40-year career at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, serving in a number of management and leadership positions before retiring in 2000.  His professional interests include instrumentation, energy storage systems and machine tool technology, as well as project and program management.   He is the recipient of the ASME Advanced Energy Systems Division Award and has co-authored several papers, including Benefits of Energy Storage Technologies published in 1984.  Barlow served as the site manager of the Mechanical Energy Storage Technology Project of the U.S. Department of Energy from 1977 to 1981.  He also served as a mechanical engineer, specializing in aircraft structures, while on active duty at the U.S. Air Force Research and Development Command at Wright-Patterson Air Base in Ohio, from 1957 to 1960.

Barlow attended Washington State University and received a B.S. degree in mechanical engineering in 1957.  He also earned a master’s degree in business administration from Golden Gate University in 1985.

In addition to ASME, Barlow has been a member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, American Society for Engineering Management, and has served on the Engineering and Computer Science Research Advisory Council at the California State University at Fresno. He is currently a member of the External Advisory Board of the Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department at Washington State University, a member of the Tau Beta Pi, Sigma Tau and Phi Eta Sigma honor societies, and is the recipient of the ASME Dedicated Service Award and the Society’s Membership Development Award.