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 (Spring 2024): 60540 (graduate students) / 60245 (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.


Upcoming UT Energy Symposium Talks

Date
Speaker
Talk Title
4/1/2025 Sanjay Bishnoi
CEO, Entropy Inc.
Producing Low Carbon Power From Natural Gas and Carbon Capture 
Note: this talk will be held in San Jacinto Hall as part of UT Energy Week.
4/8/2025 Yonghong Chen
Chief Scientist, Grid Planning and Analysis Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Interregional Transmission Operational Coordination
4/15/2025 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
Cellulosic Biofuel 2.0
4/22/2025 Sam Porter
Co-Founder & CEO, NeuVentus
Texas Reliability Underground: How Salt Cavern Storage Enables the Energy Expansion & Transition

UT Energy Symposium Talks

Displaying 1 - 11 of 11

November 20, 2014

Cybersecurity in the Electricity Grid

Gus Lott, Senior Engineer, YarCom Inc.

November 13, 2014

Methane Emissions in the Natural Gas Supply Chain

David Allen, Professor, Department of Chemical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

November 6, 2014

Technological and Commercial Innovations in Distributed Energy Generation:

  • Charlie Upshaw, PhD student with the Webber Energy Group: “Modeling Peak Load Reduction and Energy Consumption Enabled by an Integrated Thermal Energy and Water Storage System for Residential Air Conditioning Systems in Austin, Texas”
  • Erik Funkhouser, researcher with the Energy Systems Transformation group at UT: “Commercial Innovations in Community-scale Distributed Generation”

October 30, 2014

October 23, 2014

Disrupting the Power Sector: Overpowering Inertia and Incrementalism

Paul Hudson, Managing Partner, Stratus Energy Group, LLC

October 9, 2014

Energy Research at the Intersection of Computer Science, Decision Sciences, and Complex Systems

Kiran Lakkaraju, Senior Member of Technical Staff, Sandia National Laboratories

October 2, 2014

China’s Role in Global Clean Energy Technology Development

Joanna Lewis, Associate Professor, Georgetown University

September 25, 2014

Feeding the Dragon: Energy in China

Fred Beach, Assistant Director, Energy Institute

September 18, 2014

Renewables in Texas: Costs, Project Development, and Policy Issues

Panel discussion with Clay Butler (The Butler Firm), Colin Meehan (First Solar), and Spivey Paup (E.ON Renewables)

September 11, 2014

Impacts of Adoption of a More Fuel Efficient Vehicle Fleet

Steve Puller, Associate Professor, Texas A&M University

September 4, 2014

The Importance of Fuel Diversity in the Energy Generation Mix

Cris Eugster, Executive Vice President, Chief Generation and Strategy Officer, CPS Energy

Semester