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 multidisciplinary 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 entered its 28th semester in spring 2025. 

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. The course is taught in both the fall and spring semesters.

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 is recorded and posted on this page and on the Energy Institute YouTube channel.

Instructor: Carey King
Unique Number (Fall 2025): 65605 (graduate students) / 65310 (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 1 - 21 of 21

April 28, 2016

Addressing Climate Change Among the Major Economies: The Case of India

Joshua Busby, Associate Professor, LBJ School, UT Austin and Sarang Shidore, Visiting Scholar at LBJ School, UT Austin

April 21, 2016

A century of peak oil predictions

Mason Inman, Author of The Oracle of Oil

April 14, 2016

Student Research Showcase

  • Martha Gross, Texas Materials Lab: Hybrid Zinc Batteries for Grid-Level Storage
  • Thomas Deetjen, Webber Energy Group: Challenges for grid-level solar integration: generator dispatch concerns and possible solutions
  • Vivek Nath, LBJ School of Public Policy: Drivers of Plug-In Electric Vehicle Adoption in California

March 31, 2016

IoT, Analytics, Batteries, and PV: How Utilities Are Transforming Into the Utility of the Future

Raiford Smith, Vice President, Corporate Development and Planning, CPS Energy

March 24, 2016

Political Economy of Energy Policy in India

Nikit Abhyankar, Senior Scientific Engineering Associate, International Energy Studies Group, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

March 10, 2016

February 11, 2016

The Building of a $2.5b Cleantech Community in Central Texas

Mitch Jacobson, Co-Director, ATI Clean Energy Incubator

February 4, 2016

January 28, 2016

Economic Perspectives on Oil and Gas Royalties

Tim Fitzgerald, Professor, Texas Tech

May 3, 2012

Americans’ Vehicle and Travel Choices: Opportunities for Plug- In Vehicles in the Nation’s Fleet Evolution

Dr. Kara Kockelman, Professor & William J. Murray Jr. Fellow, Department of Civil, Architectural & Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

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April 26, 2012

The Future of Water in Texas, and What It Means for Energy

Thomas Mason, Former General Manager of the Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA) and currently with the law firm Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody

April 12, 2012

Taking Green Technologies from Innovation to the Market: A VC’s Perspective

Ashmeet Sidana, General Partner, Foundation Capital

April 5, 2012

March 29, 2012

Simulating Complex Systems: Applications to Energy

Dr. Charles Macal, Senior Systems Engineer, Argonne National Laboratory

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March 22, 2012

The Energy Industry’s Media Triumphs and Disasters

Mark Fischetti, Energy and Environment Editor, Scientific American

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March 8, 2012

National Oil Companies: Fueling Anxiety

Mark Thurber, Associate Director for Research, Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, Stanford

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March 1, 2012

What the Characteristics of Wind and Solar Electric Power Production Mean for Their Future

Jay Apt, Professor of Technology, Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University

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February 23, 2012

February 16, 2012

Student Research Showcase

February 8, 2012

Geopolitical Implications of Shale Gas

Amy Jaffe, Fellow in Energy Studies and Director of the Energy Forum, Baker Institute, Rice University

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January 19, 2012

Utility of the Future

Roger Duncan, Research Analyst, Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy

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