Eckhard Groll's research focuses on the fundamental thermal sciences as applied to advanced energy conversion systems, components, and their working fluids. He is a world-renown expert in positive displacement compressors and expanders. At Purdue University, he is involved in:

• Ray W. Herrick Laboratories, home to the largest academic HVAC lab in the world
• Center for High-Performance Buildings, which partners with industry for development, demonstration, evaluation, and deployment of new technologies and analysis tools for high performance buildings
• Herrick Conferences, one of the largest worldwide refrigeration and compressor-related conferences since 1972

Dr. Groll joined Purdue University as an Assistant Professor in 1994 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2000, to Full Professor in 2005, to the Reilly Professorship in 2013, and to Head of the School of Mechanical Engineering in 2019. He received his Diploma in Mechanical Engineering from the University of the Ruhr in Bochum, Germany, in 1989 and a Doctorate in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Hannover, Germany, in 1994. Since joining Purdue University, he has been the principal investigator or co-principal investigator on more than 120 research grants and more than 40 educational grants with a total budget of approximately $14 million from various governmental agencies, professional societies, and more than 30 different industrial sponsors. He has advised more than a 100 graduate students and more than 150 undergraduate project students, visiting scholars, and visiting research associates. He has authored or co-authored more than 370 archival journal articles and conference papers. He has been the co-author of 4 book chapters and the editor or co-editor of 7 conference proceedings. He holds 4 patents. He has a given 100 invited lectures and seminars, and 14 conference keynote lectures. He serves as the Regional Editor for the Americas for the International Journal of Refrigeration and is a fellow of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE). He has organized and chaired 11 international conferences on topics of Refrigeration, Air Conditioning, Compressors, and Natural Working Fluids.

Groll has also been recognized for his academic leadership in higher education. He is a 2010-2011 Fellow of the American Council on Education (ACE) and 2009-2010 Fellow of the Academic Leadership Program of the Committee on Institutional Collaboration (CIC-ALP). He has received numerous awards for his research and teaching excellence including most notably the 2018 J&E Hall International Gold Medal in Refrigeration by the Institute of Refrigeration and the 2017 Peter Ritter von Rittinger International Heat Pump Award by the IEA Heat Pump Centre. In addition, he was inducted into Purdue’s Book of Great Teachers in 2008.

The F. Paul Anderson Award, named in honor of F. Paul Anderson (1927-28 President of the American Society of Heating and Ventilating Engineers), is the Society's highest award. This award honors members for notable achievement, outstanding work or service in any field of the Society. Accomplishments include exceptional leadership in the HVAC&R industry, ASHRAE, and society, as well as broad-based activities of outstanding value in consulting, contracting, engineering, and design.

Groll received the award at the ASHRAE Winter Conference in Chicago in January 2024.