ASHRAE Insights

By Arthur E. Bergles, Fellow ASHRAE;
Member, Honors and Awards Committee

This article is part of the series sponsored by the Honors and Awards Committee to encourage ASHRAE members to recognize the achievements of their fellow members.This departs from previous articles in that it discusses an honor outside of ASHRAE.

Membership in the U.S. National Academy of Engineering (founded in 1964) is widely regarded as the highest professional distinction that can be bestowed upon a U.S. engineer. Although there are engineering/science academies in most countries, the renown of NAE is such that topflight foreign engineers are eager to become foreign associates of the academy. As of this writing, there are 2,174 members and 185 foreign associates (from 32 countries). Assuming 1.4 million U.S. engineers, the NAE is reserved for the top 0.16% of those engineers. The designation by primary work institution is 50% academe, 42% business, and 8% nonprofit and government.

While the honorary aspect of the organization is significant, the NAE also provides independent, objective advice on engineering-related topics and policies. The NAE responds to requests from the federal government, and also conducts activities sponsored by foundations, industry, and state and local governments. In addition, projects are funded through endowments established by private contributions. NAE is a unique organization that involves distinguished engineers to improve the lives of people everywhere. For an overview of NAE and its activities, see www.nae.edu/nae/naehome.nsf.

How does ASHRAE fare in NAE? The answer, sadly, is not very well. There are only five members of ASHRAE in NAE: Harry Bovay, Benjamin Liu, Donald Ross, Roger Schmidt and Arthur Bergles. The Honors and Awards Committee has encouraged the nomination of ASHRAE members for many years, a task that the late Ole Fanger (foreign associate) and I took on. While we have made several nominations, election has been elusive.

How does the system work? New member nominations are due in May. Only NAE members may act as nominators, and four letters of reference are required (also from NAE members). Nomination is in one of twelve engineering specialties, each of which has a peer committee to rank the nominations and put forward candidates. A final determination of candidates is made by the membership committee, and the general membership votes on these candidates the following January. Only about 15% of the people nominated in a given year are ultimately elected. It is difficult to get into NAE.

Our objective is to promote more ASHRAE members for NAE. After all, the work we are doing is important; the built environment has a great impact on the quality of life and economic condition of the country. There are ASHRAE members who have made sophisticated engineering contributions that have resulted in large economic benefits, and they should be considered for the prestige of NAE.

It would seem that energy is one of the topics that might be stressed: building energy utilization, data center energy management, etc. Of the 12 NAE sections, the most promising is probably Section 10, Mechanical Engineering, although ASHRAE is so diverse technically that many of the other sections might be appropriate.

Suggestions, including technical contributions and their impact, should be made to the Honors and Awards Committee through Rosy Douglas, chapter programs manager, rdouglas@ashrae.org. The suggestions will then be evaluated by Dr. Roger Schmidt and myself, and we will see to it that nominations are prepared for candidates who stand a good chance of being elected. There is no guarantee that we will be successful, but “If you don’t buy a ticket, you stand no chance at all.”