Bahnfleth is a Professor of Architectural Engineering and Director of the Indoor Environment Center at Penn State University. His research focuses on thermal storage, district heating and cooling, indoor air quality, building energy modeling and analysis, applications of thermal sciences to buildings, and sampling protocols for indoor bioaerosol contaminants.
“Bill has always come across to me as a leader and a highly motivated, meticulous, scientifically rigorous, passionate and committed researcher and one who is always keen to exchange and share views and information. His contributions to his scientific fields in HVAC, IEQ and energy, the international scientific community, and university teaching are clearly outstanding and of world-class quality,” said Chandra Sekhar, Professor and Programme Director at National University of Singapore.
ASHRAE’s highest technical honor, the F. Paul Anderson Award holds a prominent place in MechSE’s history. It has previously been awarded to multiple MechSE faculty and alumni, including Professor Emeritus Clark Bullard, alumnus Donald Bahnfleth, Professor Emeritus Will Stoecker (deceased), Professor Emeritus Seichi Konzo (deceased), Professor Emeritus Maurice Fahnestock (deceased), and Professor Emeritus and former University of Illinois President Arthur Cutts Willard (the second recipient of the award in 1936).
Bahnfleth will be recognized at ASHRAE’s Winter Conference in Orlando, Florida, in February. He previously won the 2018 Louise and Bill Holladay Distinguished Fellow from ASHRAE and the 2019 Donald Bahnfleth Environmental Health Award, an award named in honor of his late father, also an alumnus of MechSE (BSME ’52, MSME ’56).