ASHRAE, through its Epidemic Task Force, provided timely leadership in response to the COVID19 pandemic from March 2020 through June 2022. At the request of the White House, ASHRAE undertook its own project Warp Speed to build on that expertise for the future. In December 2022, the ASHRAE Board committed to quickly writing a standard to make buildings more resilient against infectious aerosols ahead of the next epidemic. In only four months the project committee created and won approval for ASHRAE Standard 241-2023. In this Lecture a member of the 241 project committee will provide a summary of the standard including its purpose, scope, and key requirements with supporting background. This talk emphasizes the use of cleaned air from air cleaners of many types to supplement outdoor air. Efficacy and safety requirements are introduced.

Kathleen Owen, ASHRAE Fellow, has extensive experience in gaseous and particulate matter air cleaning, determining air cleaning efficiency, and developing test methods to evaluate various air cleaning technologies.

Prior to starting her own company, Kathleen spent 33 years at RTI International where she worked on the ASHRAE and EPA projects that developed ASHRAE air cleaner efficiency test methods 52.2 (for particles), 145.2 (gases), and 185.1 (UV-bioaerosol). She also developed chamber test methods for gas and bioaerosol removal by in-room air cleaners based, in large part, on the AHAM CADR test method. One early project she ran was the first published measurements of indoor air particle sizes based on HVAC settings and building sources. Her ~1990 particle size literature search led to a table of particle size ranges, published in Atmospheric Environment, that has been cited often and is used in the ASHRAE Handbook. EPA, DOD, ASHRAE and other projects she has worked on included air cleaning, air quality, contaminant transport modelling, technology development, and aerosol penetration of protective garments. Also, after working in the lab for several years, she ran the RTI commercial air cleaner test lab for over 20 years with over 100 different companies as customers over the years. She now works for various customers as a consultant.

Kathleen has served ASHRAE in a variety of capacities. She is currently the PI on 1720-RP “Validation of gas-phase air-cleaner performance test method (Standard 145.2) by laboratory testing of commercially available filtration devices” and of 1784-RP “Repeatability and reproducibility assessment of ASHRAE Standard 52.2 as currently amended.” She is the co-PI on ASHRAE project 1838-RP “Emerging gas-phase electronic filtration technologies and ASHRAE 145.2 test standard” which is exploring how reactive air cleaners (RAC) work and what they emit to be able to update the test standard to include the needed byproduct analysis.

Currently a member of the Epidemic Task Force (ETF), she serves on many ASHRAE committees. She was the first chair of ASHRAE committee SSPC 145, is the immediate past chair of ASHRAE 52.2, and is the Vice Chair of ASHRAE TG2.RAST Reactive Air and Surface Treatment. She was the research subcommittee chair for TC2.3 Gaseous Contaminants for 10 years and is an incoming member of Standards. She is also working with AHAM in the development of their new bioaerosol and gas-phase air cleaner test methods.

Kathleen earned a BS in chemical engineering from NCSU and an MS in Air Pollution Control Engineering from UNC-CH.