ASHRAE Recognizes Members' Exceptional Achievements at 2025 Winter Conference

ORLANDO, FL — ASHRAE recognized the remarkable contributions of its members to the Society and the built environment at the 2025 Winter Conference in Orlando.

A list of the awards and recipients are below.

Fellow ASHRAE

Fellow ASHRAE is a membership grade that recognizes members who have attained distinction and made substantial contributions in HVAC&R and the built environment such as education, research, engineering design and consultation, publications, presentations and mentoring. The Society elevated 28 members to the grade of Fellow:

• John S. Andrepont, Life Member ASHRAE, President, The Cool Solutions Company, Naperville, Ill.
• Oswaldo de Siqueira Bueno, Life Member ASHRAE, Owner, Oswaldo Bueno Engenharia e Representações Limitada, São Paulo, Brazil
• Wade H. Conlan, P.E., BCxP, Assistant Vice President / Commissioning and Energy Discipline Manager, Hanson Professional Services, Inc., Maitland, Fla.
• Roy Crawford, Life Member ASHRAE, Executive Director of Advanced Technology, Johnson Controls, Norman, Okla.
• Trent Hunt, Vice President, Mechanical Products NSW, Salt Lake City, Utah
• Kinga Porst Hydras, Deputy Director, General Services Administration, Washington, D.C.
• Mehdi K. Jalayerian, Life Member ASHRAE, Senior Principal, Stantec, Chicago, Ill.
• Jubin Jalili, P.Eng, Vice President, Commercial Canada, Introba, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
• Josephine Lau, Ph.D., Associate Professor, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Omaha, Neb.
• Russell Lavitt, P.Eng., Principal Mechanical Engineer, Stantec Consulting Ltd., Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
• Xiaobing Liu, Group Leader of Thermal Energy Storage Research Group, Senior R&D Staff, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tenn.
• Mark M. MacCracken, P.E., Life Member ASHRAE, VP, CALMAC Portfolio Leader, Trane, Davidson, N.C.
• Stephen B. Martin, Jr., Senior Research Engineer, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Morgantown, W. Va.
• Kevin B. Mercer, P.E., Senior Principal Engineer, Rheem Manufacturing Company, Fort Smith, Ark.
• Saeed Moghaddam, William Powers Professor, University of Florida, Gainesville, Fla.
• Kurt Monteiro, HBDP, HFDP, Senior Principal, Smith + Andersen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
• Ralph T. Muehleisen, Chief Building Scientist, Argonne National Laboratory, Lemont, Ill.
• Kashif Nawaz, Ph.D., Section Head for Building Technologies Research, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Knoxville, Tenn.
• Stet Sanborn, Vice President, Director of Climate IMPACT, SmithGroup, San Francisco, Calif.
• Som Shrestha, BEMP, Senior R&D Staff, Building Envelope Materials Research Group, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tenn.
• Fahim I. Siddiqui, Life Member ASHRAE, CEO, Fahim, Nanji & deSouza (Pvt.) Ltd., Karachi, Pakistan
• Liangzhu Leon Wang, Professor and Associate Director, Centre for Zero Energy Building Studies, Department of Building, Civil and Environmental Engineering, Concordia University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Linda Fu Xiao, Professor, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong
• Samuel F. Yana Motta, Distinguished R&D Scientist, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, Tenn.
• Bing-Chwen Yang, Professor, National Yang Ming Chiao University, Tainan, Taiwan, Republic of China
• David A. Yashar, Ph.D., Deputy Chief, Building Energy and Environment Division, The National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Md.
• David P. Yuill, Ph.D., P.E., Richard L. McNeel Associate Professor of Architectural Engineering, University of Nebraska - Lincoln, Omaha, Neb.
• Wangda Zuo, Professor, Pennsylvania State University, State College, Penn.

Award of Engineering Excellence

The Award of Engineering Excellence was created in 1989 to recognize a first-place winner of the Society-level Technology Award competition for an outstanding application of innovative design and effective energy utilization. The recipient of the Award of Engineering Excellence will have demonstrated the best overall compliance with the judging criteria.

First place recipients of the Award of Engineering Excellence are:

• Jill Leung and Felix Chan, EBCx commercial buildings category, ELEMENTS, Hong Kong. The building is owned by MTR Corporation.

The ASHRAE Technology Awards

The ASHRAE Technology Awards recognize outstanding achievements by ASHRAE members who have successfully applied innovative building designs. Their designs incorporate ASHRAE standards for effective energy management and indoor air quality and serve to communicate innovative systems design. Winning projects are selected from entries earning regional awards.

• Wyatt Ross, Thom Anderson and Kyle Waymeyer, existing commercial buildingscategory, Pepper Construction Cincinnati Headquarters, Cincinnati, Ohio. The building is owned by Pepper Construction.

• Hiroshi Ito and Kitaro Mizuide, new commercial buildings category, HD Hyundai Global R&D Center (GRC), Seongnam, South Korea. The building is owned by HD HYUNDAI.
  
  
• Megan Brangers-Wandling, Douglas Hundley, Jr., P.E., Taylor Leigh and Jess Farber, existing educational facilities, Simpson College, Indianola, Iowa. The building is owned by Simpson College.
  
  
• Ben Hobbs, P.E. and Chris Reeves, new educational facilities category, Audubon Area Community Services Chapel Hill Head Start Center, Owensboro, Ky. The building is owned by Audubon Area Community Services.
  
  
• Hiroki Yokoyama, P.E.Jp, Masaya Okumiya, Dr.Eng., Kunita Shindo, P.E., and Hideki Tanaka, Dr.Eng., EBCx institutional buildings category, Aichi Environmental Research Center, Aichi Prefectural Institute of Public Health, Nagoya, Japan. The building is owned by Aichi Prefectural Government.
  
  
• Koki Toyomura, Hiromasa Tanaka and Kitaro Mizuide, new institutional buildings category, Kyoto City Hall Annex Building, Kyoto, Japan. The building is owned by the City of Kyoto.

• Mário Sérgio Pintos de Almeida and Kelvin Cruz de Oliveira, new health care facilities category, Mater Dei Salvador Hospital, Salvador, Brazil. The building is owned by Mater Dei.
  
  
• Matthew Stebe, Sawyer Moorse and Nate Douvier, EBCx public assembly category, Westwood Church Recommissioning, Excelsior, Minn. The building is owned by Westwood Community Church.
  
  
• Nicholas Filamini, P.E., Andrew Collins, P.E., Gregory Swaluk, P.E. and Joel Sarmiento, existing public assembly category, Cub Run Rec Center, Fairfax County, Va. The building is owned by Fairfax County Park Authority.
  
  
• Félix Robert, new residential category, Bureaux Rayside Labossière, Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The building is owned by Rayside Labossière architectes.

Student Design Competition

The 2024 student competition focused on a new central public library in the heart of São Paulo, Brazil which consists of open library space, retail space, café, conference and office rooms, an automated storage and retrieval system along with numerous support spaces such as restrooms, utility rooms, and storage rooms. The goal of the library is to be a community hub to promote education, community involvement, and diversity. 

First place in the HVAC Design Calculations category was awarded to Ain Shams University. Team members are Kirollos Milad Faragalla, Omar Mohamed Shaaban, Mohamed Khairat Taha, Omar Mohamed Ashraf, Mina Refaat Tawfik and Emmanuel Ayman Tawfik.

First place in the HVAC System Selection category was awarded to the University of Nebraska – Lincoln. Team members are Benjamin Bugenhagen, Katie Frey, Reece Fuchs, Solana Honda and Will Randby.

First place in the Setty Family Foundation Net Zero Energy Design category was awarded to Universitas Indonesia - Team Archine. Team members are Alfian Febrianto, Alya Widha Aurellia, Bimantyo Ganggas Fadhil Ihsani, Miguel Bintang Samuel Silitonga, Muflikh Kas Yudamaulana and Risma Fitriyanti.

The Setty Family Foundation Applied Engineering Challenge

The 2024 Setty Family Foundation Applied Engineering Challenge focused on the design of a new or modified system using components from an existing HVAC unit that is at the end of its useful life to create an energy efficiency retrofit or recycled product. Designs were geared towards building decarbonization to help reduce indoor and outdoor air pollution, saving energy, recycling and/or reuse, and eliminating GHG emissions.

The first place student team is from Bandung Institute of Technology – Team Jong Java. Team members are Yoota Naufal Achmad, Achmad Mirzaq Nizar, Aeric Razan Priyanto, Daffa Fatih Rafi Andwiqi, Muhammad Izzul Haq and Raihan Iqbal Bisono.

Building EQ Competition

In the Building EQ Competition students had the opportunity to evaluate and audit building energy consumption for buildings in operation to give the building a Building EQ score using the ASHRAE Building EQ online tools. The winning team focused on Appelt Hall which is a residence hall on the Texas A&M University campus.

The first place student team is from Texas A&M University. Team members are Dhyan Dharmesh Patel, Adharsh Adepalli, Namrata Chandravadan Thakkar, Mrunal Sheetal Upadhye and Digvijaysinh Barad.

F. Paul Anderson Award

Ashok Virmani, Life Member ASHRAE, received the F. Paul Anderson Award.

The award is ASHRAE's highest technical achievement given for notable achievement of outstanding services performed in the HVAC&R field. Virmani is an advisor, Shinryo Suvidha Engineers India Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi, India.

E.K. Campbell Award of Merit

Sandra Boetcher received the E.K. Campbell Award of Merit. The award honors an individual for outstanding service and achievement in teaching and is presented by the Life Members Club. Boetcher is a professor and research fellow, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Daytona Beach, Fla.

YEA Inspirational Leader Award

Abhishek Khurana, P.Eng., received the YEA Inspirational Leader Award. The award recognizes a Young Engineer in ASHRAE (YEA) member who has gone above and beyond to make considerable contributions to the industry and community. Khurana is chief executive officer, Voyager Buildings, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

ASHRAE Hall of Fame

Raymond C. Thornton, Fellow Life Member ASHRAE (1923-2018) and William Firth Wells (1887-1963) were inducted into the ASHRAE Hall of Fame. The ASHRAE Hall of Fame honors deceased members of the Society who have made milestone contributions to the growth of ASHRAE-related technology or the development of ASHRAE as a society.