Dr. Ralph T. Muehleisen is the Principal Building Scientist, the Building Energy Decision and Technology Research (BEDTR) Group leader, and the Urban Science and Engineering Program lead for Argonne’s Energy Systems division. At Argonne, Dr. Muehleisen leads research to increase the energy efficiency and resiliency of the built environment while improving the quality of life and return on investment for citizens. His projects include urban science and engineering, stochastic building energy modeling, reduced order building energy modeling, risk analysis of building energy retrofits, Bayesian Calibration methods for building energy models, agent based models for understanding adoption of retrofit technologies, smart building/smart grid integration, and the development of new energy efficient and diagnostic technologies buildings. Dr. Muehleisen is the author of over 180publications and presentations, and is a frequent invited speaker in the areas of urban science and engineering, building energy modeling, architectural acoustics and noise control.
His research focuses on experimental and analytical studies to improve the energy performance of building envelopes, equipment, and systems. Some of his recent work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory includes energy efficiency enhancement of Army huts, thermal performance evaluation of various radiant barrier systems, lifetime energy and environmental impact of building insulation materials, identify and evaluate performance of lower-global warming potential alternative refrigerants for various applications and operating conditions, study suitability of procedures for evaluating performance of appliances and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems, and performance evaluation of thermochromic and electrochromic paints for buildings applications. He is also developing web-based energy-savings calculation to estimate energy and cost savings potential from improving building envelope airtightness. He earned a master’s and doctorate in mechanical engineering from Iowa State University. He is an American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) certified Building Energy Modeling Professional (BEMP) and member of ASHRAE, American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), and Tau Beta Pi.
As Founder and CEO of polySpectra, he is a project lead within Cyclotron Road, Berkeley Lab’s startup accelerator. His work leverages light-activated catalysts to 3D print advanced functional materials with tailored properties in a sustainable manner. He has also led research in energy-efficient window coatings. He earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry from Caltech and a B.S. in Chemistry from Princeton University
He is a research and development (R&D) staff member in Oak Ridge National Laboratory’s Building Technology Research and integration Center (BTRIC) with more than 20 years of experience in the field of building energy performance. He is a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Accredited Professional Building Design + Construction (BD+C) and National Fenestration Rating Council (NFRC) certified simulator, and has actively participated in several LEED and sustainability projects and contributed significantly in building energy software product developments. In recent years, his focus is on fenestration research, module development for EnergyPlus, whole building energy simulation, manual and auto calibration, industrial energy data analysis for energy savings impact, building energy monitoring and performance analysis, and the evaluation and integration of energy efficient technologies in buildings. He currently serves on the NFRC Board of Directors.
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