The first ever ASHRAE section in the UK has been formed, with Steve Gill as president and Edward Murphy as president-elect.
The ASHRAE UK-Midlands section is located in Central England covering the counties of Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire, Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Bedfordshire, Lincolnshire, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands and Rutland.
The new ASHRAE section was officially inaugurated in the summer at Loughborough University by ASHRAE past president professor Bill Bahnfleth and professor Dennis Loveday.
Steve Gill said: “I have been a member of ASHRAE for many years but only really became active when I was living overseas and joined the Singapore Chapter. ASHRAE has such a lot to offer that it was disappointing that there was no local group in the UK.
“When I heard that Dennis Loveday at Loughborough University was interested in forming an ASHRAE group I was immediately very enthusiastic and keen to help get it launched”.
Founded in 1894, ASHRAE is a global society advancing human well-being through sustainable technology for the built environment. The society and its 54,000-plus members worldwide focus on building systems, energy efficiency, indoor air quality, refrigeration and sustainability. Through research, standards writing, publishing, certification and continuing education, ASHRAE shapes tomorrow’s built environment today. More information can be found at www.ashrae.org/news.
Steve Gill said: “We were keen that the new group offered a meeting point without the need to travel to London. There are a large number of current ASHRAE members living in the Midlands area so it seemed the ideal geographical location. The region also invitingly benefits from having a number of leading universities so arranging interesting guest lectures and papers will attract students too.”
He continued: “The group is still very much in its infancy and we would like to invite more ASHRAE members to become involved. We are looking for committee members in a variety of roles to help us take this forward.
“The next meeting is on Thursday 10 December at 5pm at Loughborough University. This is a great opportunity for UK ASHRAE members to become actively involved, perhaps for the first time. I look forward to meeting with them.”
Steve is currently also president elect of the Institute of Refrigeration, becoming president in April 2016, and feels that this is an opportunity for the two bodies to forge closer links. He said “I am not the first IOR president to also be a member of ASHRAE but with the formation of the new ASHARE UK section, this gives us a unique opportunity to work together”.
For more information contact Steve at ASHRAE@stephencgill.com or Karen Chadwick at K.L.Chadwick@lboro.ac.uk
Pictured left to right are: Yi Zhang, Edward Murphy (president-elect), Dennis Loveday – (founding president), Steve Gill (president), Victoria Haines and Brian Sensecall
