Faculty Directory

EDUCATION

• Ph.D. ('97), M.S. ('95) - Mechanical Engineering
  
  University of Maryland (College Park, USA)
• B.S. ('83) - Mechanical Engineering 
  
  Korea University (Seoul, South Korea)

BACKGROUND

Dr. Yunho Hwang is a research professor and co-director of the Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE).  He is a worldly-renowned expert for “Energy Efficiency and New Innovative Energy Systems Research” in the field of refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC). He started his industrial career at Samsung Electronics in 1983, developed energy-efficient heat pump systems, and replaced ozone-depleting R12 with R134a in household refrigerators. Since joining the University of Maryland in 1993, he developed R-22 alternative refrigerants for air-conditioning systems and then started researching enhanced CO₂ systems. In 1997, he started the Energy Efficiency and Heat Pumps Consortium as a director and successfully developed multiple innovative energy-efficient and sustainable RAC technologies. In addition to developing energy-efficient technologies such as two-stage CO₂ split cycle, saturation cycle, and hybrid separate sensible and latent cooling technology, he has initiated new innovative research on “Not-in-kind” Refrigeration Systems beyond sorption technologies such as elastocaloric cooling systems and electrochemical compression for natural refrigerants. As an educator and researcher, he advised UMD student teams for multiple national and international collegiate design competitions, introduced innovative thermal systems concepts, and helped teams win First or Second place.  

He is an ASME Fellow, an ASHRAE Fellow, and a member of ASME, ASHRAE, SAE, and IIR.  He served as a President of Commission B1, a chair of the LCCP Working Group for the IIR, and an operating agent of ANNEX 54 for IEA HPT.  He also serves Energy, Elsevier (Netherlands) as a subject Editor since 2015, and Int. Journal of AC&R, World Scientific (US), as an editor since 2013.

AWARDS

• •  

  • Gustav Lorenzen Medal Award from IIR, August 2023

  • The Wilbur T. Pentzer Award from USNC/IIR, July 2022.

  • A. James Clark Student Competition Advisors Award, December 2021.

  • Peter Ritter von Rittinger International Heat Pump Award, IEA HPT, April 2021.

  • The University of Maryland, Dean’s Award for Professional Track Faculty Research, September 2020

  • ASHRAE Fellow, 2019

  • ASME Fellow, 2014