Dr. Eckhard A. Groll is the Reilly Professor of Mechanical Engineering and also serves as the William E. and Florence E. Perry Head of Mechanical Engineering. He joined Purdue University as an Assistant Professor in 1994 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2000, to Full Professor in 2005, and to the Reilly Professorship in 2013.
Prof. Groll teaches thermodynamics and his research focuses on the fundamental thermal sciences as applied to advanced energy conversion systems, components, and their working fluids. He is a world-renown expert in positive displacement compressors and expanders. Since joining Purdue University, he has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 120 research grants and more than 40 educational grants with a total budget of approximately $14 million from various governmental agencies, professional societies, and more than 30 different industrial sponsors. He has advised more than a 100 graduate students and more than 150 undergraduate project students, visiting scholars, and visiting research associates. He has authored or co-authored more than 370 archival journal articles and conference papers. He has been the co-author of 4 book chapters and the editor or co-editor of 7 conference proceedings. He holds 4 patents. He has a given 100 invited lectures and seminars, and 14 conference keynote lectures. He serves as the Regional Editor for the Americas for the International Journal of Refrigeration and is a fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). He has organized and chaired 11 international conferences on topics of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, Compressors, and Natural Working Fluids.
Prof. Groll has been recognized for his academic leadership in higher education. He is a 2010-2011 Fellow of the American Council on Education (ACE) and 2009-2010 Fellow of the Academic Leadership Program of the Committee on Institutional Collaboration (CIC-ALP). He has received numerous awards for his research and teaching excellence including most notably the 2018 J&E Hall International Gold Medal in Refrigeration by the Institute of Refrigeration and the 2017 Peter Ritter von Rittinger International Heat Pump Award by the IEA Heat Pump Centre. In addition, he was inducted into Purdue’s Book of Great Teachers in 2008.
