Dr. Gregory T. Linteris is a mechanical engineer and group leader in the in the HVAC&R Equipment Performance Group of the Building Energy and Environment Division of the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). He is also a project leader for research on refrigerant flammability as well as the program manager for the Net-Zero Energy, High-Performance Buildings Program. Previously, he was in the Fire Research Division as project leader, conducting research to understand the detailed mechanisms of chemically acting fire suppressants, material flammability, and flame retardant additives for materials.
Before joining NIST in 1992, Dr. Linteris was on the research staff at the University of California, San Diego, where he performed analytical and numerical studies on the structure of N2O/CO and H2/NO2 flames, which are important in the deflagration region of some solid rocket propellants. He also performed experimental and analytical studies of the lift and drag forces on heptane droplets in unsteady, non-uniform flow. Dr. Linteris's Ph.D. research, at the Fuels Research Laboratory at Princeton University, was in the area of high-temperature chemical kinetics. During his first year, he studied the oxidation of n-butyl benzene in a turbulent chemical kinetic flow reactor. In his last three years, he developed a laser absorption system and a novel 180º laser-induced fluorescence probe and measurement system for remote, trace radical concentration measurements--the first ever in the Princeton flow reactor, and used these to study the moist CO oxidation reaction. In 1997, Dr. Linteris served as a payload specialist astronaut on two NASA space shuttle missions, conducting microgravity combustion, fluid mechanics and material science experiments while in earth orbit for twenty days.
Dr. Linteris has been an editorial board member for several major journals in combustion, has presented a papers and invited talks at national and international scientific meetings, and has authored or co-authored 99 refereed and 103 un-refereed scientific publications. He has received numerous awards, including a Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers from the White House, a 2023 Jacob Rabinow Applied Research Award from NIST, an American Society of Mechanical Engineers Distinguished Speaker award, and best paper awards from the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration, Air-Conditioning Engineers, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and the International Journal of Refrigeration. He has been an instructor in the part time engineering program at the Johns Hopkins University, teaching a graduate course in combustion.