Hrnjak named ASME Fellow

MechSE research professor and co-director of the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Center (ACRC), Predrag Hrnjak, has been named an ASME Fellow, the society's highest membership grade of distinction. He has been a member of ASME since 1999.

The ASME Board of Governors confers the Fellow grade of membership on worthy candidates to recognize their outstanding engineering achievements. Nominated by their peers, ASME Fellows have had 10 or more years of active practice and at least 10 years of continuous active corporate membership in ASME.

Hrnjak has been part of the department since 1993, when he was a postdoctoral research associate. He has also seen success as co-director of the ACRC, an industry-university cooperative research center founded by the NSF that promotes collaborative research in advanced air conditioning and refrigeration systems. They seek to develop more energy-efficient equipment, and to provide a forum for industry to share precompetitive research and results.

Hrnjak earned his Dipl. Ing., M.S., and D.Sc. degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in 1976, 1984, and 1992, respectively.

His current research focuses on heat transfer and fluid mechanics with end-use energy conversion applications as refrigeration, heat pumps, and air conditioning. Additionally, Hrnjak is president of Creative Thermal Solutions, Inc.