Li Erming

Li Erming Chinese: 李耳鸣 (April 8, 1876 - September 4, 1940) was a Chinese-British electrical engineer, physicist, and professor who was one of the five founders of Tritian in 1905. He worked within the company during its successful early years, and in 1931 he left to lecture in physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Early Life and Education
Li Erming was born in Jiangning, in the Qing Empire. His father was a bureaucrat, and his mother was an ethnic Tsou who had emigrated from Taiwan in 1870.

Li graduated from Jinling University in 1899, and traveled to the United Kingdom where he continued with postgraduate studies and research at University College London, where future Tritian co-founder Edmond Dowd was completing his graduate studies, though the two did not formally meet during their time there.

Tritian
Li's role in the early days of the company is less clear than that of his compatriots. While he was active in the design and formation of Tritian, as a founder, he did not accrue administrative roles for himself in the new company, instead pursuing a more hands-on research position.

On an average day at the company, Li was the founder who could most readily be found, often working alongside the general populace of employees. He was approachable and had a wry sense of humor, often facetiously evoking his high rank and status as founder to mess with newer employees. Because of all this, he was very popular within the company, in contrast to figures such as Robertson, Osco, and Leonard J. Scot, who were perceived to operate as an elitist inner circle of the company inaccessible to the average employee.

Li officially retired from the company in August of 1931.

Teaching and Later Years
Li had been a guest lecturer on several occasions at MIT between 1928 and 1931, and was invited to the Institute as an Adjunct Professor in March 1931. Li was a professor of physics from 1931 to 1940. He met Assistant Professor Donna Ulstad in 1932, and they married three years later. He took a leave of absence in January of 1940 due to worsening health.

Li died on September 4, 1940, from complications due to lung cancer.

Personal Life
Li married Donna St. Mary Ulstad on May 18, 1935. He was 58, and she was 57. Because of their age, they chose to adopt, rather than conceive. They adopted 10 year old Sally Li "Sally Lee" Ulstad in August of that same year. Ulstad was a Methodist, which Li converted to before their marriage.

During his stay in England, Li went by the name Eric Li at the suggestion of a professor of his at Jinling University. He had dropped the name by the time he came to the United States.

Li was a lifelong chainsmoker, and would often socialize with fellow Tritian employees during smoke breaks, as Robertson and Dowd forbade smoking in the building, for personal reasons as well as safety protocol.