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
April 22, 2025
Texas Reliability Underground: How Salt Cavern Storage Enables the Energy Expansion & Transition
Sam Porter
Co-Founder & CEO, NeuVentus
View Talk Details
April 15, 2025
Cellulosic Biofuel 2.0
Lee Lynd, Paul E. and Joan H. Queneau Distinguished Professor of Engineering & Adjunct Professor of Biology, Dartmouth University; Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Terragia Corporation Renewable Energy Laboratory
View Talk Details
April 8, 2025
Interregional Transmission Operational Coordination
Yonghong Chen
Chief Scientist, Grid Planning and Analysis Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
April 1, 2025
March 27, 2025
Electric grid dynamic simulation: open synthetic datasets and stability assessment frameworks
Adam Birchfield
Assistant Professor, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&M University
View Talk Details
March 11, 2025
Reimagining Battery Chemistries for Sustainable Energy Storage
Kent Zheng
Assistant Professor, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering & Texas Materials Institute, The University of Texas at Austin
March 4, 2025
A Country-Level Primary, Final, Useful Energy and Exergy Database to Improve Understanding of Energy and the Economy
Matthew Heun, Professor, Department of Engineering, Calvin University; Virtual Visiting Research Fellow, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds; Extraordinary Professor, School of Public Leadership, Stellenbosch University
Paul Brockway, Associate Professor, Sustainability Research Institute (SRI), School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds
February 25, 2025
Utility Data and Connectivity—How Climate Changes Everything
Daniel Roesler
Founder & CIO, UtilityAPI
February 18, 2025
Cyberwarfare and Critical Infrastructure in the 21st Century
Chris Lamb
Cybersecurity Researcher, Energy Security, Sandia National Laboratory
February 11, 2025
The Real-World Economics of the Energy Transition: Finding Policy That Works
Hector Pollitt, Senior Economist, World Bank
February 4, 2025
Reducing Methane Emissions from Oil and Gas Operations in the Permian Basin: A Common Sense Approach
Melinda Taylor, Senior Lecturer, School of Law, University of Texas at Austin
January 28, 2025
Energy Companies and Environmentalists: The Voluntary Carbon Market
Reid Calhoon, CEO, ClimateWells
January 21, 2025
Making Climate Policy Models More Decision-Relevant
Wei Peng, Assistant Professor School of Public and International Affairs & Andlinger Center for Energy and the Environment, Princeton University
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
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
California’s March Towards Sustainable Energy: Assessing the Record and Lessons for Future
Andrew McAllister, Managing Director, California Center for Sustainable Energy
March 29, 2012
Simulating Complex Systems: Applications to Energy
Dr. Charles Macal, Senior Systems Engineer, Argonne National Laboratory
March 22, 2012
The Energy Industry’s Media Triumphs and Disasters
Mark Fischetti, Energy and Environment Editor, Scientific American
March 8, 2012
National Oil Companies: Fueling Anxiety
Mark Thurber, Associate Director for Research, Program on Energy and Sustainable Development, Stanford
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
February 23, 2012
From Here to Eternity (and Beyond): Transforming to a Clean Energy Economy
David Crane, President and CEO, NRG Energy
February 16, 2012
Student Research Showcase
- Sudamsh Bai-Reddy, McCombs School of Business See PDF slides in a new window
- Benjamin Sigrin, Energy and Earth Resources and LBJ School of Public Affairs See PDF slides in a new window
- Dave Tuttle, Electrical and Computer Engineering See PDF slides in a new window
- Dan Weisberg, Pecan Street Inc. See PDF slides in a new window
February 8, 2012
Geopolitical Implications of Shale Gas
Amy Jaffe, Fellow in Energy Studies and Director of the Energy Forum, Baker Institute, Rice University
January 19, 2012
Utility of the Future
Roger Duncan, Research Analyst, Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy