Energy Symposium

UT Energy Symposium

A weekly guest lecture series that is both free and open to the public and available for course credit.

In an effort to provide a multi-disciplinary platform for UT faculty and students to interact on the most pressing energy issues facing our world, the Energy Institute sponsors the UT Energy Symposium (UTES), which will enter its 27th semester in fall 2024. 

The UTES serves as a “convener” for the campus community, uniting students interested in energy issues with faculty and others working on sustainable energy security. Students who register for the symposium receive one credit hour for the 15-week seminar course, which is open to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Ongoing themes for UTES include climate change policy, innovation and diffusion of energy technologies, low-carbon technology options and status, and behavioral aspects of energy consumption.

Each UTES talk will be recorded and posted on this page and on the Energy Institute YouTube channel following the event.

Instructor: Carey King
Unique Number (Spring 2024): 60345 (graduate students) / 60030 (undergraduates)
Day & Time: Tuesday, 12:30 – 1:45 p.m.

If you need an accommodation to participate in this event, please contact Christa Hopkins, who can be reached at 512-475-8447 or christa@energy.utexas.edu, no later than five (5) business days prior to the event.


UT Energy Symposium Talks

Displaying 176 - 200 of 314

September 7, 2017

Keeping The Lights On As We Transition To Renewables

Gene Preston, CEO, Transmission Adequacy Consulting

April 27, 2017

Redesigning Civilization: And Other Small Things

Matt Grocoff, Principal, THRIVE Collaborative

April 20, 2017

ExxonMobil 2017 Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040

Robert Gardner, Manager, Economics and Energy Division, Corporate Strategic Planning at ExxonMobil

April 13, 2017

The Evolving Utility Business Models – The Electric Cooperative Story

Peter Muhoro, Director of Energy Research and Strategies, Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC)

April 6, 2017

Mexican Energy Reform in a time of Insecurity

Lorne Matalon, UT Energy Journalism Fellow and reporter for National Public Radio in West Texas

March 30, 2017

Energy and the Anthropocene

David Biello, Science Curator at TED Conferences

March 23, 2017

U.S. & World Nuclear Energy

Dale Klein, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research for the UT System and Professor of Mechanical Engineering

March 9, 2017

The Geopolitics of Oil: Western Hemisphere Scenarios

Jorge Piñon, Director of UT Austin’s Latin America and Caribbean Energy Program

March 2, 2017

The Art of Doing Good Science: Experiences in Interdisciplinary Energy Research

Varun Rai, Associate Professor at the UT Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs

February 23, 2017

February 16, 2017

Decoupling energy consumption from GDP under induced technological change

Eric Kemp-Benedict, Senior Scientist, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

February 2, 2017

Climate Change, Methane, and the Global Oil and Gas system

Daniel Zavala, post-doctoral-scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund

January 26, 2017

Beyond the Texas Restructured Electric Markets Giving Power and Value to Consumer Energy Resources

Jon Wellinghoff, Chief Policy Officer at SolarCity and former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (2009 – 2013)

November 17, 2016

Dust to Dust, with a stop at the Stars: The NRG Story

George Schaefer, retired senior financial executive with over 30 years’ experience in the independent power industry

November 10, 2016

EPRI’s Integrated Grid

Barbara Tyran, Executive Director, Government & External Relations, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)

November 3, 2016

Power Markets, Regulation, and Utility Scale Solar in the U.S.

Colin Meehan, Director, Regulatory & Public Affairs, First Solar

October 27, 2016

Reforming the Energy Vision: An Electric System for Stormy Times

Elizabeth Stein, Senior Manager – New York Clean Energy Law & Policy, Environmental Defense Fund

October 20, 2016

Fail Faster, Be Nimbler: Does the Oil & Gas Industry Have Anything to Learn from Silicon Valley?

Russell Gold, senior energy reporter at The Wall Street Journal

October 13, 2016

Cash is King! The Comparative Effectiveness of Solar Incentives

Dan Matisoff, Associate Professor, The School of Public Policy, Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts, Georgia Tech

October 6, 2016

New Utility Business Models for an Evolving Industry

Virginia Lacy, Principal, RMI Electricity Practice

September 29, 2016

ERCOT and the Evolving Grid: 2016 Perspectives

Paul Wattles, Senior Analyst, Market Design, ERCOT

September 22, 2016

Who is that Man Behind the Curtain? Philanthropy’s Role in the Transition to Clean Energy

Marilu Hastings, Vice President, Sustainability Program, The Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation

September 15, 2016

What is the World Coming To: From Energy Systems to Global Crisis Analysis and Response

Yaneer Bar-Yam, President, New England Complex Systems Institute

September 8, 2016

Distributed Energy Resources – Driving Multi-Disciplined Innovation

Bert Haskell, Chief Technology Officer, Pecan Street Inc.

September 1, 2016

Global progress in Carbon Capture and Storage – field demonstrations with emphasis on the storage component

Dr. Susan Hovorka, Senior Research Scientist, Bureau of Economic Geology, The University of Texas at Austin