This week's featured speaker at the UT Energy Symposium is Matthew Heun, Professor of Engineering at Calvin College. His talk is titled "From Theory to Econometrics to Energy Policy: Cautionary Tales for Policymaking Using Aggregate Production Functions."
Dr. Matthew Kuperus Heun received Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He received the B.S. Engineering degree from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, MI. After studying the efficiency and performance of ozone-safe refrigeration and air-conditioning systems for his doctoral degree, he embarked on an international career in industry and academia that has spanned planetary exploration, renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency, energy policy, sustainability teaching and advocacy, super-fast computation, economic development, and the interactions between energy and the economy. At present, Dr. Heun currently serves as professor of engineering at Calvin College. He has held positions at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Global Aerospace Corporation, the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa, and Cape Peninsula University of Technology, also in South Africa.
Dr. Heun’s long-term research question is “What is the relationship between energy and the economy when viewed through the lens of sustainability?” Recent publications include a book entitled Beyond GDP: National Accounting in the Age of Resource Depletion and several papers: “Energy rebound as a potential threat to a low-carbon future: Findings from a new exergy-based national-level rebound approach,” “Energy-augmented CES aggregate production functions: Current aspects of their specification and econometric estimation,” “Energy return on (energy) invested (EROI), oil prices, and energy transitions,” and (just submitted) “A physical supply-use table framework for energy analysis on the energy conversion chain.”
The UT Energy Symposium meets every Thursday during the long semesters. Come early to attend a networking session before the talk: refreshments will be served at 4:45 p.m. in the POB Connector Lobby outside the auditorium.
UT Energy Symposium talks are free and open to the public; no RSVP required.