Professor, Ph.D., P.E., Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Cornell University (1969)

Department of Mechanical Engineering (1976)

University of Alaska Fairbanks
Duckering Building Room 337
P.O. Box 755905
Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-5905

Phone: (907) 474-6096 | Fax: (907) 474-6141 | e-mail: ffraj@uaf.edu

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Background and Research Interests:

Dr. Johnson currently holds a joint appointment with the Department of Mechanical Engineering as Professor, and the Institute of Northern Engineering as Principal Investigator. As part of the teaching position, he teaches courses in energy and the environment, heat transfer, power analysis, and thermodynamics. He has been a principal investigator on many funded research projects. These include a water-planning study for the arctic, an assessment of wastewater treatment technology in Alaska, land application of aerobically-digested sludge, oxygen transfer mechanisms in salmon spawning media, arsenic removal from water supplies, solids recovery from seafood processing wastewaters, performances of oil- and gas-fired heat generation systems and diesel-electric generators, recycling of placer mining process waters, modeling of carbon monoxide dispersal in ambient air, cogeneration of heat and power, the attainment of suitable water supplies for salmon hatcheries, prediction of contaminant transport in groundwater, development of strategies for enhancing indoor air quality in cold climates and the development of sustainable energy systems for remote arctic communities.

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Courses:

• ME 313 - Advanced Thermodynamics
• ES 346 - Thermodynamics
• ME 441 -Heat Transfer
• ME 617 - Power Analysis
• EQE 643 - Air Quality Management
• EQE 645 - Chemical and Physical Water and Wastewater Treatment
• ME 458/658 (ENVE 458/658) - Energy and the Environment

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Education:

• Ph.D. in Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, 1969
• M. S. in Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, 1966
• Sc.B. in Aerospace Engineering, Brown University, 1965

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Research Projects:

• Indoor -- Outdoor Air Quality Study
• Fairbanks PM2.5 Assessment
• CCHRC PV analysis
• Radon Mitigation Study
• Rural Dust Control Strategies

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Selected Publications:

• Marsik, T. and Johnson, R., 2008, Use of Simulink® to Evaluate the Air Quality and Energy Performance of HRV-Equipped Residences in Fairbanks, Alaska, Energy and Buildings, 40, pp 1605–1613
• Marsik, T. and Johnson, R., 2008, Use of Simulink® to Address Key Factors for Radon Mitigation in a Fairbanks Home, Health Physics, 94, pp 434-439
• Marsik, T. and Johnson, R., 2008, HVAC air-quality model and its use to test a PM2.5 control strategy, Building and Environment, 43, pp 1850-1857
• Agrawal, A., Wies, R., and Johnson, R., 2007, Hybrid Electric Power Systems, VDM Verlag,
• Marsik, T. and Johnson, R., 2007, Use of a State Space Model to Study the Effect of Outdoor Air Quality on Indoor Air in Fairbanks, Alaska, Indoor and Built Environment, vol 16, issue 6 , pp 538-547
• Richard W. Wies, Ronald A. Johnson, and Ashish N. Agrawal, Life Cycle Cost Analysis and Environmental Impacts of Integrating Wind-Turbine Generators (WTGs) into Standalone Hybrid Power Systems, WSEAS Transactions on Systems, Issue 9, Volume 4, Sept. 2005, pp. 1383-1393

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Awards and Honors:

• UAF Energy Center Dedication - Dr. Johnson's research on the development of sustainable energy systems reached a milestone on August 16, 1999 when UAF celebrated the opening of the UAF Energy Center.

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