Laura Lee Ely, a metallurgical engineering graduate of Missouri University of Science and Technology, will speak on work/life balance at the eighth annual Dr. Thomas J. O’Keefe Lecture Series, presented by the department of materials science and engineering.

Ely’s presentation, titled “Striking the Perfect Work/Life Imbalance,” will be held at 3:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 13, in Planje Auditorium, Room 204 McNutt Hall on the Missouri S&T campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

A reception honoring Ely will be held before the lecture from 2:45-3:15 p.m. in the McNutt Commons.

“The path you take in life is guided by your choices and some heavy doses of fate and fortune,” Ely says. “There is no perfect path, just as there is no perfect work/life balance.

“In my time as a metallurgist, a career woman, a wife and a mother, I’ve learned to surrender to imperfection, accept the life imbalance, take the help, live in the moment and treasure relationships above all else.”

Ely will reminisce on her personal and professional past and discuss her post-college shortcomings and how she worked to fix them. “Finally, I will take a crack at imparting a few words of wisdom for you as you continue your own wonderfully imperfect life journey,” she says.

Ely earned a bachelor’s degree metallurgical engineering from Missouri S&T in 2004 and started her professional career as a metallurgical process engineer at Olin Brass. Since 2010 she has worked for GKN Aerospace in a variety of roles, including lead manufacturing engineer on the Boeing 787-9 wing rib package. Today Ely is the head of technology for GKN Aerospace-Aerostructures North America, where she leads a team that develops advanced manufacturing processes for many aerospace applications.

The Dr. Thomas J. O’Keefe Lecture Series at Missouri S&T was created in memory of O’Keefe, Curators’ Distinguished Professor emeritus of metallurgical engineering. He earned bachelor’s and Ph.D. degrees from the university and was a student and professor in the metallurgical engineering department from 1953 until his death in 2008. The lecture series is funded by Joe and Sally Rupp. Joe Rupp was a student of O’Keefe’s and earned a bachelor’s degree in metallurgical engineering from S&T in 1972.

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