Oak Ridge National Laboratory had a record number of ASHRAE fellows for the year, an honor that recognizes excellence in building technologies research. Credit: Andy Sproles/ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Four senior staff scientists in building technologies from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory took home ASHRAE’s highest professional honors during the organization’s annual winter conference in Orlando, Florida.
Som Shrestha, Xiaobing Liu, Samuel Yana Motta and Kashif Nawaz were named among 28 ASHRAE fellows, a distinction given to members who have demonstrated excellence in advancing the arts and sciences of the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration industry. The professional organization for the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers has more than 50,000 members in more than 130 countries worldwide.
“Being named an ASHRAE fellow is a very special recognition of a career of accomplishment and impact,” said Robert Wagner, associate laboratory director for ORNL’s Energy Science and Technology Directorate. “To have four researchers and leaders named ASHRAE fellows in one year is unprecedented for any organization and a testament to the strength and culture of our building technologies team.”
Shrestha, who also served as the technical program chair for the conference, joined the Building Envelope Materials Research group in 2009. His research focuses on developing novel active building envelopes, high-performance thermal insulations and thermal energy storage systems. He is a past recipient of the ASHRAE Distinguished Service Award and earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Iowa State University.
Liu, who leads the Thermal Energy Storage Research group, also joined ORNL in 2009 and is an expert in ground source heat pump systems, low-cost ground heat exchangers and thermal energy storage. He is a past recipient of the ASHRAE Distinguished Service Award and earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Oklahoma State University.
Motta joined ORNL in 2021 in the Building Equipment Research group after 21 years at Honeywell where he invented and developed refrigerants products for mobile, residential and commercial refrigeration industries. He earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering from Catholic University in Brazil.
Nawaz, who is the section head for Buildings Technologies Research, joined the lab in 2016 and specializes in the heating, cooling and dehumidification systems of buildings including the development of novel heat exchangers, evaluation of emerging refrigerants and enhancement of phase-change processes. He is the previous recipient of ASHRAE’s Exceptional Service, Distinguished Service and Crosby Field awards. He earned his doctorate in mechanical engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.
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