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
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
Building a smart grid through smart decision-making and smart organizations
Michael Legatt, CEO and Founder at ResilientGrid
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