Madison, WisconsinㅡOctober 22, 2024ㅡ Keith Richards was awarded the ASME Engine Impact Award at the 2024 ICE Forward conference. This ICE Division award honors internal combustion engine and aftertreatment system research and development toward a commercial product. Richards was chosen for this distinction as a testament to his significant contributions to the internal combustion engine (ICE) community and to acknowledge his many achievements in the field.
"It is a great honor to receive the ASME Engine Impact Award. I've dedicated much of my career to developing software and models that help engineers analyze and improve engines," says Richards. "Typically, I prefer to be hidden in the backend of operations, but I am immensely grateful to receive this recognition. It recognizes my efforts, but it's also a reflection of the incredible support I've received from my colleagues, partners, and mentors. Receiving this award is definitely the result of a collective journey, and I am grateful to everyone who has been a part of it."
Richards is a co-founder, co-owner, and vice president of Convergent Science, a leading computational fluid dynamics (CFD) company that develops and maintains CONVERGE CFD software. CONVERGE is used by engine companies around the world to design more efficient and sustainable engine technologies. As one of the principal developers of CONVERGE, Richards has played a significant role in the initial development and implementation of the software's unique autonomous meshing feature. Today, he continues to oversee much of the development and maintenance for the CONVERGE code. His expertise includes numerical methods, detailed chemistry, rapid grid generation, engine intake simulations, and high-performance computing.
A strong advocate of the interconnectedness of innovation and education, Richards is dedicated to both research and teaching. In addition to his leadership of an international CFD company and publication of numerous high-impact scientific papers, he is also an adjunct professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he imparts essential skills and knowledge to his students. Richards strives to be an exemplary role model for the next generation of CFD researchers and engineers.
"This award speaks to how far we've come since we started out in that broom closet in the '90s," Richards says. "Since then, Convergent Science and ASME have both empowered engineers around the world to build a more equitable and sustainable future. It is a great honor to have been able to be a part of that transformative journey, and I look forward to contributing to the future of engineering with ASME."