Student Highlight: Geoffrey Turbeville, CCNY

(LinkedIn)

1. Tell us about your background and how you got to where you are today.

Before attending City College, I worked as a plumber in NYC for close to ten years. The Master Plumber I worked under had previously been a PE and received his bachelor’s in mechanical engineering from CCNY in the late 80’s. He recommended that I pursue engineering and encouraged me to begin taking classes while working. I am a lifelong New Yorker.

2. What got you interested in research, and why are you interested in the BEST Center research you are doing?

I honestly never imagined myself participating in research until a call went out among undergraduate ME students asking if anyone had prior plumbing experience. A friend of mine encouraged me to reach out to one of the PIs at the lab and I began working there right away. I have always been interested in building a more energy efficient future for buildings and I believe that New York will be the one of the most challenging cities in the world to work on. If we can reduce building carbon emissions here through innovative technology and complex retrofits, then it can be done anywhere.

3. Where do you see your project going in the future, and/or how will working on this project help your career in academia and/or industry?

If we can utilize CO₂ as an effective refrigerant in multifamily heating and cooling, I hope that our research will result in the democratization of refrigerants which are currently expensive and have extremely high global warming potential. I hope to work in sustainably minded mechanical design for the foreseeable future, so being on the cutting edge will be invaluable.

4. What are your career ambitions?

I hope to be involved in the decarbonization of New York City’s aging building stock, whether that’s by working on creative solutions for retrofitting or by developing entirely new technology to do so.

5. What is an interesting fact about you?

I was in a band in high school that was signed to a major record label and appeared on MTV’s “You Hear it First”.

In the coming year, Geoffrey will be working on the BEST Center project “Sustainable Air Source Heat Pump Systems for Electrified Transition Markets in the Multi-Family Buildings Sector” with Prof. Jorge Gonzalez-Cruz and Prof. Prathap Ramamurthy. Student profiles are linked to on the People page of the BEST Center website.