February 10, 2023
By Ashley Ritchie

Srinivas Garimella, Hightower Chair in Engineering and professor in the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, has been named a Fellow by the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). Garimella is one of 13 to receive the honor in 2023.

Garimella was elevated to the grade of Fellow for his substantial contributions to education and research. He was formally recognized during the 2023 ASHRAE Winter Conference, held February 4-8, in Atlanta, Georgia.

“This is a well-deserved recognition of Srinivas’ contributions to the field,” said Devesh Ranjan, Eugene C. Gwaltney, Jr. School Chair. “I appreciate all he does for our students and the global community.”

Garimella serves as the director of the Sustainable Thermal Systems Laboratory. He conducts research in the area of sustainable energy systems, such as absorption and vapor compression heat pumps, natural refrigerant space-conditioning systems, and waste heat recovery, storage, and upgrade. His research also includes phase change in microchannel and compact heat exchangers, heat and mass transfer in binary mixtures, and supercritical/transcritical fluid flow and heat transfer.

“It is gratifying to be recognized for my research and teaching in this area, none of which would have been possible without the dedicated efforts of my students over the years,” said Garimella.

Garimella has mentored over 75 postdoctoral researchers, research engineers, and students pursuing their M.S. and Ph.D. degrees, with his research resulting in almost 400 archival journal and conference publications, a textbook on Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow in Minichannels and Microchannels (2nd Ed., Elsevier 2014), and books on Condensation Heat Transfer (World Scientific Publishing, 2015) and Adsorption Heat Pumps (Springer Nature, 2021.) He has been awarded 17 patents.

Garimella is a Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), Editor of the International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration, and a corresponding member of the ASHRAE Technical Committee on Heat Transfer and Fluid Flow. He has also served as an Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Heat Transfer, Associate Editor of the ASME Journal of Energy Resources Technology, Chair of the Advanced Energy Systems Division of ASME, Associate Editor of the ASHRAE HVAC&R Research Journal, Chair of the ASHRAE Technical Committee on Absorption and Heat Operated Machines, and a member of the ASHRAE Research Administration Committee. 

Garimella has received numerous awards including an NSF CAREER Award, the ASHRAE New Investigator Award, the SAE Ralph E. Teetor Educational Award for Engineering Educators, the ASME Award for Outstanding Research Contributions in the Field of Two-Phase Flow and Condensation in Microchannels, the Thomas French Distinguished Educator Achievement Award, and the Zeigler Outstanding Educator Award.

Garimella received a Ph.D. degree in 1990 and an M.S. degree in nuclear engineering from The Ohio State University. He received a B. Tech. in mechanical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur in 1982. He was a research scientist at Battelle Memorial Institute from 1984-1990 and a senior engineer in the Delphi Harrison Thermal Systems Division of General Motors Corporation from 1990-1993. After serving as a research specialist in the mechanical engineering department at The Ohio State University from 1993-1994, he joined Western Michigan University, where he served on the faculty of the mechanical and aeronautical engineering department from 1994-1998. Garimella was an associate professor of mechanical engineering and director of the Advanced Thermal Systems Laboratory at the Iowa State University prior to joining Georgia Tech.

About ASHRAE

Founded in 1894, ASHRAE is a global professional society committed to serve humanity by advancing the arts and sciences of heating ventilation, air conditioning, refrigeration and their allied fields.

As an industry leader in research, standards writing, publishing, certification and continuing education, ASHRAE and its members are dedicated to promoting a healthy and sustainable built environment for all, through strategic partnerships with organizations in the HVAC&R community and across related industries.

The Society is showcasing integrated building solutions and sustainability in action through the opening of the ASHRAE Global Headquarters building in metro-Atlanta, Georgia.