As a new associate professor in the UW-Madison Department of Mechanical Engineering, Adam Dempsey is excited to return to his alma mater and the department where he earned his PhD 13 years ago.
“I’m actually taking over the same lab in the Engine Research Center where I did my PhD research,” says Dempsey, who joined the department in January 2026. “For my research area, working in the renowned Engine Research Center at UW-Madison is the best place to be for pioneering engine technologies that will have a big impact.”
Using computer modeling and experiments, Dempsey is working to develop new internal combustion engine technologies that allow engines to use a wide variety of alternative, lower carbon fuels—without sacrificing performance and improving efficiency. Specifically, he’s focused on tackling sustainability challenges in commercial transportation, which is one of the most difficult sectors to electrify due to the high energy demands over long operating periods. The commercial transportation sector, which includes semi-trucks, off-road construction, agriculture and mining equipment, railroads and ships, primarily runs on diesel engines due to their unique operating characteristics.
“To improve the sustainability of heavy-duty transportation, we must reduce the emissions from diesel engines,” Dempsey says. “The most pragmatic way to do that is to keep the diesel engine but change the fuel to alternative, lower-carbon, cleaner-burning fuels.”
The problem, however, is that these alternative fuels—including ethanol, methanol, hydrogen and ammonia—don’t easily ignite in diesel engines, making it very difficult to use them for combustion. To overcome this challenge, Dempsey is developing various ignition assistance technologies that will allow alternative, hard-to-ignite fuels to burn rapidly.
“The goal with these new technologies is essentially to make alternative fuels act like diesel fuel in the engine,” Dempsey says. “This will enable fuel-agnostic engines that can use a wide variety of sustainable fuels while still performing like heavy-duty diesel engines.”
Dempsey received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering from Bradley University and earned his PhD in mechanical engineering from UW-Madison in 2013, with Professor Rolf Reitz as his advisor. He went on to work as postdoctoral researcher at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and as a senior research engineer at Caterpillar, from 2015 to 2019, before joining Marquette University as an assistant professor of mechanical engineering.
He says the experience of working in industry before moving into academia has been immensely valuable. He gained firsthand experience of industry needs and perspectives that continue to inform the research projects he pursues as he works to make discoveries that can translate into solutions with real-world impact.
Dempsey says the mechanical engineering department at UW-Madison is an ideal place to grow his research lab because of the exceptional facilities and research infrastructure, and because it’s home to the Engine Research Center, which is known worldwide for its long and storied history of innovation in engine research. In particular, he’s looking forward to collaborating with colleagues who are doing related research in fuels and engines.
“It’s very exciting to return to UW-Madison and work alongside the faculty, staff and students in the Engine Research Center, where we can share resources, easily collaborate and pursue large research grants together. The technologies I’m working on are needed by the engine community, and the Engine Research Center is also tackling these challenges, so it’s a very natural fit,” he says.
Photo of Adam Dempsey by Joel Hallberg