Stephen A. Ciatti
Stephen A. Ciatti (ES), principal mechanical engineer and a technical lead for the Center for Transportation Research at Argonne National Laboratory, has a passion for engine research, which led to being named Fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
“Recognition from peers is the most treasured acknowledgement in this business and it was gratifying to see that senior ASME members and other ASME Fellows looked at my nomination packet and decided that I belonged in the club,” said Ciatti.
Ciatti, a Lombard resident, received the lifetime honor in mid-October at the ASME Internal Combustion Engine Division Fall Technical Conference in Seattle, Washington. He was both surprised and honored.
Ciatti was nominated by Robert Wagner, director of the National Transportation Research Center at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.
The nomination said Ciatti “provides strategic and technical leadership for the entire combustion engines program, which includes advanced combustion concepts, combustion chemistry, high-fidelity engine simulation, fuel spray characterization and ignition systems.” It also noted his “game-changing” research, a significant impact on the technical community, significant media coverage, professional recognitions and many industrial partnerships.
Besides the ASME honor, Ciatti twice earned ASME’s “Best Presented Paper” awards. Teamed with other Argonne CTR researchers, he also received a U.S. Council for Automotive Research award for participating on a team to generate an advanced fuels roadmap for future automobiles and engines. The council is an auto industry group including GM, Ford and Fiat-Chrysler members.
He now is working on high-efficiency engine technologies, like Gasoline Compression Ignition (GCI) with an automotive four-cylinder engine and an Opposed Piston 2-Stroke Engines (OP2S) project using GCI with a startup company in San Diego, called Achates Power Inc.
Next, Ciatti’s work at Argonne will devise methods to utilize new fuels that cost less and require less production, along with using bio-blendstocks to create the next generation of high-efficiency, low pollution engines.
“Contrary to what you may hear, engines are far from dead in the automotive sector,” Ciatti said. “Electrification does not always mean all electric vehicles. It means adding electric systems to the current powertrains to take advantage of what engines and batteries do well. Advanced plug-in electric hybrids, in other words, with each system doing what it does well. The fuels work will be very important, especially as the rest of the world ramps up their industrialization and demand for energy increases substantially.”
At Argonne, he uses APS data, MIRA simulations and other advanced science tools to provide a feedback loop with the engine research team to look at the auto-ignition of fuels in engines (and the sprays from injection systems that precede and help define ignition) to create these new combustion approaches that lead to increased efficiency and reduced emissions, he said.
“We are most certainly not done yet as we continue to improve fuel efficiency and air quality,” Ciatti said.
Ciatti’s passion for research in the field of internal combustion engines is “unparalleled,” said Douglas E. Longman, manager of Engine Combustion Research.
“He wears it on his sleeve for all to see, and he’s well respected and recognized around the world,” said Longman. “Engines will continue to play a significant role in our transportation with researchers like Dr. Ciatti on the watch.”
By Anna Marie Tomczyk