UNT hires distinguished energy engineering researcher

From a UNT News Service press release

Internationally known researcher Yong X. Tao has joined UNT as chair of the Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, director of the PACCAR Technology Institute and PACCAR Professor of Engineering.

With more than 20 years of research and 17 years of teaching and administrative experience, Tao brings expertise in thermal sciences, refrigeration system performance, alternative energy, multi-scale computational engineering, and renewable energy applications in buildings.

Tao has received more than $12.2 million in research funding for multidisciplinary teamwork projects from the National Science Foundation, NASA, U.S. Air Force, U.S. Department of Energy and various industries.

Prior to joining UNT, Tao was associate dean of the College of Engineering and Computing and professor of mechanical and materials engineering at Florida International University. At FIU, he also served as laboratory director and led initiatives in several projects to improve sustainable construction and research multiphase thermal engineering.

As project director of Future House USA, he led a consortium of academics, builders, industry sponsors and lobbyists to represent the U.S. in an international project to build an energy efficient and sustainable house near the site of the 2008 Olympic Summer Games in Beijing.

Tao is a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineering, has served on many technical committees, and assists in the editing process for several technical journals in his research field. He holds two patents and has published his research in more than 154 professional journals, in addition to publishing book chapters and writing peer-reviewed technical conference papers.

Elizabeth Smith with UNT News Service can be reached at elizabeth.smith@unt.edu.

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• Moving Forward: More leading researchers join faculty
• UNT generating clean energy, raising water issue awareness
• Grant bolsters Student Support Services program
• Faculty Focus: Feifei Pan
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• UNT Alumni Association