Although humanities and fine arts were my favorite subjects in high school, I pragmatically decided to pursue higher education in mechanical engineering at the University of Illinois, following in the footsteps of my father, ASHRAE Presidential Member Don Bahnfleth. In retrospect, it was absolutely the right call. I entered my PhD studies as a thermal scientist doing abstract work but transitioned to thermal systems, driven by a desire to do more applied research that would have a tangible impact on engineering practice for the good of society. Energy conservation in buildings emerged as a big issue in built environment at that time, so my dissertation considered heat transfer between buildings and the ground. While I was doing that, I also spent the last few years of college life getting that music degree I’d always wanted – and I still practice every day.
I wanted to have an academic career but delayed it to work as a consulting engineer for five years. That experience helped my land a job at Penn State and was foundational to my teaching and research there. About five years into my academic career, I became aware of the emerging body of research on how indoor air quality affects health and wellbeing and shifted most of my research effort to IAQ, which has been my passion for more than 25 years.
I joined ASHRAE as a student member and became an associate member as a graduate student. Professional service through ASHRAE has been a uniquely satisfying and important part of my career and has brought many opportunities for professional growth. I joined my first technical committee while finishing graduate school in the late 1980s and from there went where opportunity took me, culminating service as President in 2013-14. The post-presidential years of my ASHRAE career have brought me the most difficult and satisfying challenges of all – leading ASHRAE’s initial response to the Covid-19 pandemic as chair of the Epidemic Task Force and then chairing the development of ASHRAE Standard 241-Control of Infectious Aerosols at the request of the White House Covid-19 Response Team. I’ve always had a career plan, but being ready and willing to change course has probably contributed the most to such success as I’ve had.