ORNL building technologies researchers Stephen Kowalski, left, and Mikael Salonvaara received the 2024 ASHRAE Distinguished Service Award during the annual summer conference. Credit: ORNL, U.S. Dept. of Energy
Building equipment and envelope scientists at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory were recognized for research excellence during the ASHRAE 2024 summer conference held in Indianapolis.
Stephen Kowalski and Mikael Salonvaara received the Distinguished Service Award, which salutes members who have served the society with distinction in chapter, regional and society activities. Kowalski and Salonvaara have each been active members of ASHRAE for more than 25 years and have supported the organization’s Technical and Standards Project Committees.
ASHRAE is the largest international professional organization for the advancement of heating, ventilation, air conditioning and refrigeration systems design and construction.
At ORNL, Kowalski leads the Multifunctional Equipment Integration group and guides research focused on new technologies for residential, commercial and industrial heating, ventilation and air conditioning. Those technologies include novel vapor compression methods for air conditioners and heat pumps, as well as carbon capture. Kowalski also serves as a subprogram manager, coordinating ORNL’s work with the Appliance and Equipment Standards Program within DOE’s Building Technologies Office.
Prior to joining ORNL in 2021, Kowalski worked in industry with Trane Technologies, where he focused on product and technology development for residential and commercial gas furnaces and air conditioners. He earned a master’s degree in mechanical and aerospace engineering from Princeton University and a master’s in business administration from Indiana University.
Salonvaara joined ORNL in 2019 as a senior research and development staff member in the Building Envelope Materials Research group. He is an internationally recognized expert in the transfer of heat, air and moisture through a building’s outer walls, or envelope. Salonvaara specializes in the experimental analysis of the envelope’s thermal and moisture performance using computer modeling. He is currently leading projects quantifying how wood structures reduce building energy, peak demand and embodied carbon. In addition, he is developing a robotic system that autonomously installs spray foam insulation on walls to lower cost and improve quality and safety.
Previously, Salonvaara worked in industry, serving as the building science leader and principal scientist for Owens Corning Science & Technology and as a senior building scientist for Huber Engineered Woods. He has worked in academia as a research scientist with Syracuse University and the Technical Research Center of Finland and served as a guest researcher with the National Research Council in Canada. Salonvaara holds a master’s degree in technology from LUT University in Finland.
In addition to the Distinguished Service Awards, ORNL’s Andre Desjarlais, residential buildings program manager, and Antonio Aldykiewicz, a senior research and development staff member in building envelope materials research, were part of a team that received the Best Paper Award for “Data Acquisition System Selection and Calibration of Resistive Moisture Content Measurements for Large-Scale Field Studies in Cold Climate Residential Building Envelope Performance.”
UT-Battelle manages ORNL for DOE’s Office of Science. The single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, the Office of Science is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit energy.gov/science.
