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
4/1/2025Sanjay 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.
4/8/2025Yonghong Chen
Chief Scientist, Grid Planning and Analysis Center, National Renewable Energy Laboratory
Interregional Transmission Operational Coordination
4/15/2025Lee 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
4/22/2025Sam Porter
Co-Founder & CEO, NeuVentus
Texas Reliability Underground: How Salt Cavern Storage Enables the Energy Expansion & Transition

UT Energy Symposium Talks

Displaying 1 - 12 of 12

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

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)