Dr. Larry Stikeleather, has had many outstanding industry and academic research accomplishments. Throughout his career, he has been involved in the area of machine design including studies in the interaction of machines with their human operators. He spent 16 years in industry with Universal Oil Products Company and Allis-Chalmers Corporation, during which his contributions and service were focused on innovations in operator comfort and safety of agricultural equipment. He was actively involved in standards development at the national and international level in the area of operator whole-body vibration and ride comfort.

Stikeleather pioneered and patented a concept for active seat suspension technology, along with on-board computer control, which allowed the commercialization of active seats on agricultural tractors. His work has received 11 patents in a wide range of topics, including active vibration control for seat suspensions for tractors and construction machinery, rapid extraction methods for bioactive compounds from plant material, and biofuels conversion processes. His latest research involves processes for converting renewable oils and fats to “drop-in” transportation biofuels such as bio-gasoline and bio-jet fuel. Funded by the NC Biofuels Center.

For the past 29 years, Stikeleather has been training tomorrow’s innovative engineers teaching program. He most recently taught Analytical Methods in Mechanical Design and Introduction to BAE Methods. He has authored or coauthored more than 90 refereed journal articles, book chapters, conference proceedings, and technical publications.

Stikeleather has contributed his leadership and expertise to various ASABE Society technical committees, including the Textbooks and Monographs and PE Exam review committees. He was an ASABE Distinguished Lecturer in the tractor design series entitled Operator Seats for Agricultural Equipment.

Stikeleather’s previous awards and honors include a Society of Automotive Engineers Techn ical Board Certificate of Appreciation in Recognition of Outstanding Contributions to the ASAE Human Factors Committee, an Acoustical Society of America Certificate of Appreciation for Significant Contributions to ANSI Standards, and ASABE. He received the Wisconsin Section Engineer of the Year Award. For more than 40 years he has been a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers and achieved the grade of Fellow.