The Kenneth Lightfoot Medal, an annual prize awarded by the Institute of Refrigeration for the best research paper of the past 12 months, has been given to Star’s Oxford branch Service Manager Chris Druce. His paper entitled ‘The Impact of Refrigerant Charge on the Capacity and Efficiency of a System Containing Low GWP Refrigerants’ impressed the IOR membership and he was awarded an engraved medal and £500 cash prize donated by Lightfoot Defence.
Chris first joined Star as an industrial refrigeration apprentice over a decade ago, and has progressed rapidly through his career trajectory. This is not Chris’ first recognition from the Institute of Refrigeration; he also picked up the IOR’s Ted Perry award for his student research while completing his degree with Star.
The award was presented at the IOR Annual Dinner, and Chris also led a networking event to encourage engineers to share ideas and get more involved in the industry. Kevin Glass, President of the IOR presented him with the award and remarked, “This paper explores a topic that is very current, the importance of correct refrigerant charge, and the results are relevant to a huge number of refrigeration systems.”
