General Conference Chairs
Ravi Annapragada, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Disruptive HVACR Innovation
Carrier Corporation
Dr. S. Ravi Annapragada is an Associate Director, Disruptive HVACR Innovation at Carrier Corporation; specializing in identification and development of sustainable HVACR technologies. He is the author of 40 peer reviewed papers in the area of alternate heat pumps, solid-state cooling, and heat transfer and has filed >30 patents (8 granted so far). He also serves on the Industry Advisory Board Member of Embry Riddle University Department of Mechanical Engineering. He is an ASME fellow and is currently an Executive Member of the ASME Heat Transfer Division. He is a recipient of multiple awards including 2016 EPPD ASME Young Engineer Of The Year, 2008 ASME best paper award, 2009 InterPACK best poster award. He was previously an associate editor for the Journal of Electronics Packaging.
Sandra Boetcher, Ph.D.
Professor of Mechanical Engineering and College of Engineering Research Fellow
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Sandra Boetcher is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. She obtained her B.M.E., M.S., and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota in 2001, 2003, and 2006, respectively. Prior to her appointment at Embry-Riddle, Professor Boetcher was a founding faculty member in the newly formed Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering at the University of North Texas and worked for several companies including Honeywell, 3M, and Donaldson Company. She currently serves as an editor of Carbon Capture Science and Technology and has served as an associate or guest editor for a number of other journals, including Journal of Thermal Science and Applications, Journal of Fluids Engineering, and Journal of Heat Transfer. In 2019, she was appointed to the ASME Heat Transfer Division Executive Committee. She was awarded an ASHRAE Presidential Award of Excellence through the Space Coast Chapter for her participation as lead faculty member in Solar Decathlon 2017 and is a Fellow of ASME.
Technical Program Chairs
Diana-Andra Borca-Tasciuc
Professor in Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering Department
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Diana-Andra Borca-Tasciuc is a professor in the Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering Department at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, which she joined in 2006. She received her B.S. in Physics from Bucharest University, and M.S. and PhD. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California at Los Angeles. She is a 2008 NSF Career awardee and a 2013 Fulbright scholar. Her research interests are in the area of energy conversion and current projects include power harvesting MEMS, solar power harvesting building envelope and thermal processes at nanoscale. She has co-authored over 100 journal articles and conference proceedings and is a co-inventor on several patents and patent applications. She is serving as the Chair of the ASME K-8 Theory and Fundamental Research Technical Committee and is a member of the ASME K-6 Heat Transfer in Energy Systems Committee.
Dr. Dong Liu
Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Houston
Dr. Dong Liu is a Professor and the Director of Graduate Studies in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Houston (UH). Before joining UH, he was a post-doctoral research associate in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University, where he received his Ph.D. Dr. Liu obtained both his B.S. and M.S. from Tsinghua University, China. He has served as the Chair of ASME K-9 Committee on Nanoscale Thermal Transport. His research interests include micro/nanofluidics, phase change heat transfer, boiling and two-phase flow and light-matter interactions.