Margaret Wu

Dr. Margaret Wu was born in Taipei, Taiwan, and largely educated there before moving to the United States, where she spent almost all her career working at Mobil. She invented a new class of synthetic lubricants that reduce the wear and corrosion in engines, are more efficient, and are more stable than traditional lubricating oils over a wide temperature range. She was able to construct these new oils by carefully designing a means to reduce the branching in the chemical structure. The synthetic lubricants she invented are widely used in everything from cars to wind turbines. The various types of lubrication are discussed in the chapter.