NEW YORK,  Oct. 28, 2008 – James P. O’Leary, a resident of Medford, Mass., and associate professor emeritus at Tufts University, will be honored by ASME.  He is being recognized for over 14 years of devoted service as the Student Section advisor at Tufts University, including organizing numerous major events and mentoring students and faculty from multiple institutions.  He will receive ASME’s Student Section Advisor Award.

The award, established in 1990, is presented to an ASME member whose leadership and service qualities have contributed, for at least three years, to the program and operations of a student section of the Society.  The award will be presented to O’Leary during the 2008 International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, which is being held in Boston, Oct. 31 through Nov. 6.

After 42 years on the faculty of the School of Engineering, Mr. O’Leary retired from Tufts University in June 2005.

He began his teaching career as an instructor in mechanical engineering at West Virginia University (WVU), Morgantown, in 1960.  While a full-time instructor he pursued his master’s degree and, in 1963, moved to Tufts University as an instructor in the department of engineering graphics when WVU phased out instructorships.  At Tufts, he rose to assistant professor in 1964 and was promoted to associate professor in 1970.  Since his initial appointment, he saw the department change into the department of graphics and design, followed by the department of design and, lastly, the merger of most of its members into the department of mechanical engineering.

O’Leary has not only taught design, he designed.  Early in his Tufts career he spent a series of summers at the Polaroid Corporation (Cambridge, Mass.) where he helped design, erect and commission a complex train of machines for assembling Polaroid’s film packs.  For another client, he designed a unique machine to measure the cutting force of surgical scalpels and thereby their sharpness.  He holds 14 patents, including one for a device to reattach ligaments and tendons to bone.

A few years ago the Tufts department of mechanical engineering initiated the James P. O’Leary Award for Outstanding Senior Design Project and the James P. O’Leary Design Fund, which is now fully endowed.  This award was in recognition of O’Leary’s profound influence on his students and on the mechanical engineering curriculum in the area of design.  It is presented each year to a graduating (bachelor’s degree) student team that is judged to have produced the best senior design project.  This is particularly fitting since O’Leary has been the primary advisor and solicitor of industry sponsorship of senior design projects since the programs inception in the early 1990s.

A member of ASME, O’Leary has been serving as the faculty advisor to the Tufts University Student Section since 1994 and has continued in this position despite his 2005 retirement.  He actively encourages students to become ASME members, emphasizing the role of the Society in career development.  Under his mentorship, the Tufts section, which had been almost invisible, was revived and is now recognized for its various activities as well as being an effective information conduit between department students and faculty.  As an active member in the Boston Section since 1976, O’Leary has been able to connect members of the Student Section to activities of the Senior Section, benefiting both groups.  He was previously on the Operating Committee of the Boston Section, serving long term on the Program Committee, and was treasurer for several years. 

O’Leary received his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at Villanova University, Pennsylvania, in 1960.  In 1964 he earned his master’s degree in mechanical engineering at WVU.

Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, ASME is a not-for-profit professional organization promoting the art, science and practice of mechanical and multidisciplinary engineering and allied sciences.  ASME develops codes and standards that enhance public safety, and provides lifelong learning and technical exchange opportunities benefiting the global engineering and technology community.

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