Canadian made president-elect of ASHRAE

The president elect of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) is a Canadian. T. David Underwood of Oakville, Ontario was installed at ASHRAE’s annual meeting in Seattle on July 2. He will become president in June 2015, succeeding the current President, Tom Phoenix.

A graduate from the University of Manitoba in civil engineering, Underwood went on to work in the HVAC&R products industry and founded Isotherm Engineering in 1975. He has coauthored manuals and served on trade advisory committees, and is an ASHRAE distinguished lecturer and member of Technical Committee 7.2.

Another Canadian, Darryl K. Boyce, P.Eng., was installed as vice-president of ASHRAE on July 2. Boyce is assistant vice-president of facilities management and planning at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Several Canadians also won awards that were handed out at the conference. Edward I. Mackie, P.Eng. of Coquitlam, B.C. won one of eight Distinguished 50-Year Member Awards.

Jean Bundock, P.Eng. of Roche Consulting in Quebec City, won one of 30 Distinguished Service Awards.

Two engineers from Quebec won Technical Paper Awards. Michel Bernier and Parham Eslami Nejad received an award for: “A Preliminary Assessment on the Use of Phase Change Materials Around Geothermal Boreholes.” Bernier is a professor at Polytechnique Montreal, and Nejad is a post-doctoral researcher at Canmet Energy, Natural Resources Canada in Varennes, Quebec.

ASHRAE is over 120 years old and has more than 50,000 members worldwide. It describes itself as “a global society advancing human well-being through sustainable technology for the built environment.”