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CEEE Co-Director Yunho Hwang has been selected as a recipient of the 2025 Provost's Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty. |
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Congratulations to Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE) Co-Director Yunho Hwang on being named a recipient of the University of Maryland’s 2025 Provost's Excellence Award for Professional Track Faculty. Hwang is a research professor in the UMD Department of Mechanical Engineering. The award recognizes the excellence of his research contributions over his 32 years at the University of Maryland. He is one of nine professional track faculty members selected for this year’s award – and one of only three to receive the award specifically in recognition of research contributions.
Hwang joined CEEE in 1993 as a research assistant while working on his doctoral research. In 1997, he earned his Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the university and founded CEEE’s Energy Efficiency and Heat Pumps Consortium, which develops sustainable refrigeration and cooling technologies.
His team’s research breakthroughs include the saturation cycle, the first CO2 heat pump water heater in the USA, and hybrid separate sensible and latent cooling technology. Hwang is at the forefront of the movement to minimize the use of greenhouse gases in cooling systems and has pioneered innovative approaches that go beyond sorption technologies, including elastocaloric cooling and electrochemical compression for natural refrigerants.
Throughout his career in academia and industry, Hwang has authored 396 publications and received 21 patents. He is among the top 1% most cited in his field (Web of Science, 2016) and is ranked ninth worldwide in refrigeration research (ScholarGPS, 2025).
His dedication to growing and fostering the next generation of engineers is unwavering. Hwang has mentored 67 graduate students and has advised UMD student teams in multiple national and international collegiate design competitions, helping the teams incorporate innovative thermal systems concepts that led to first- and second-place finishes.
Hwang received the Gustav Lorentzen Medal in 2023 and is a Fellow of both the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). He has been a subject editor for both Energy (2015-2023) and the International Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration (2013-present). He also served as president of Commission B1 for the International Institute of Refrigeration, Operating Agent for ANNEX 54 of the International Energy Agency’s Heat Pumping Technologies Program, Chair of ASME’s Advanced Energy Division and Chair of ASHRAE’s Refrigeration Technology Committee.
Hwang will be presented the Provost’s Excellence Award in September at the university's 42nd annual Faculty & Staff Convocation.
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May 21, 2025
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