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 29th semester in fall 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.
Upcoming UT Energy Symposium Talks
Date | Speaker | Talk Title |
|---|---|---|
| 10/28/2025 | Xi Chen | Associate Professor CUNY Advanced Science Research Center Department of Chemical Engineering, The City College of New York | Water-Responsive Materials for Evaporation Energy Harvesting |
| 11/4/2025 | Michael Howland | Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Assistant Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Powering Decarbonization With Modeling and Optimization of Renewables in the Changing Environment |
| 11/11/2025 | Chris Kennedy | Professor, Institute for Integrated Energy Systems, University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada | Energy and Economic Regimes |
| 11/18/2025 | Leah Ellis | CEO and Co-founder, Sublime Systems | Energy-Efficient Cement Manufacturing |
| 12/2/2025 | Andrew Fix | Assistant Professor, Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin | Moisture Matters: Leveraging Water Vapor-Selective Membranes in the Built Environment |
UT Energy Symposium Talks
October 29, 2024
The Road to the Renewable Energy Transition Must Pass Through Crowded Lands
Joseph Kiesecker, Lead Scientist, The Nature Conservancy
October 22, 2024
Sustainability and Autonomy - The Interconnected Future of Modern Flight
Dan Dalton, Vice President, Global Partnerships, Wisk Aero; LLC Volunteer Chairman of the Texas Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) Advisory Committee
October 15, 2024
Reckoning with Social Policy in Utility Regulation
Alexandra Klass, James G. Degnan Professor of Law, University of Michigan Law School
October 8, 2024
Hydrogen in the Energy Transition, Emergence From Research Interest to National Priority
Frank Wolak, President and CEO, Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association
October 1, 2024
Fusion on Earth: A Quintessentially Scientific Pursuit With an Important Commercial Goal
Swadesh Mitter Mahajan, Research Professor, Institute for Fusion Studies, Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin; Chief Scientific Advisor of Exofusion
September 24, 2024
Carbon Capture and Storage in the Global Climate Scene
Tim Dixon, Director and General Manager, IEAGHG
September 17, 2024
Lowering the Risk of Commercialization of CO2 Capture With Amine Solvents
Fred Closmann, Research Associate, McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering
September 10, 2024
Book Talk: The Conservative Environmentalist
Founder and Executive Chairman, American Conservation Coalition; Author, The Conservative Environmentalist
September 3, 2024
April 16, 2024
The Politics of the Energy Transition
David Spence, Professor of Energy Law, The University of Texas at Austin
Joshua Busby, Professor of Public Affairs, The University of Texas at Austin
Sheila Olmstead, Professor of Public Affairs and Dean Rusk Chair, The University of Texas at Austin
April 9, 2024
What Can Biology and Ecology Teach Us About Energy and the Economy?
James H. Brown Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico
Charles A. S. Hall Professor Emeritus, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
April 2, 2024
The Economics of Decarbonizing the Electricity Sector
Jackson Dorsey, Assistant Professor of Economics, University of Texas at Austin.
March 26, 2024
Can Business Models Accelerate Sustainable Energy Transitions in the Commercial Sector Without the Need for Government & Utility Incentives or Feed in Tariffs?
Matthew Nemerson, VP Strategic Partnerships, Budderfly.
March 19, 2024
Linking Zero Net Energy Housing with Affordable Housing
Michael Garrison, Professor of Architecture, Cass Gilbert Teaching Fellow, School of Architecture, The University of Texas at Austin.
March 5, 2024
Planning and Operational Challenges on the Path to a Cleaner Future
Mark G. Lauby, Senior Vice President and Chief Engineer, NERC.
February 27, 2024
Nationwide Charging Needs for Accelerating Electric Vehicle Adoption
Eric Wood, Senior Researcher at NREL.
February 13, 2024
Incorporating Nuclear in the Energy Mix to Achieve Net Zero
Jhansi Kandasamy, Executive Director for Net-Zero at Idaho National Laboratory.
February 6, 2024
Reducing Grid Emissions with a Software Upgrade
Dr. Kyri Baker, Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder.
January 30, 2024
The Coal Trap: How West Virginia Was Left Behind in the Clean Energy Revolution
James Van Nostrand, Former Charles M. Love, Jr. Endowed Professor West Virginia University College of Law.
January 23, 2024
The HyVelocity Hydrogen Hub Project & the US Model for Energy Innovation
Brian Korgel and Andy Uhler, Rashid Engineering Regents Chair Professor of Chemical Engineering & Director of the Energy Institute and UT Energy Journalism Fellow.
January 16, 2024
Changing Energy Geopolitics with Notes on the Eurasia Crises
Tatiana Mitrova, Research Fellow, Center on Global Energy Policy and Independent Director
November 28, 2023
A Conversation with J. Clay Sell, CEO of X-energy: Redefining Nuclear Energy
J. Clay Sell, Chief Executive Officer of X-energy
November 14, 2023
A.I. in Short-term Power Trading: A Look at Potential Impacts on Industry, Economy, and Regulation
Dan Erhardt, CEO of Arcus Power Corp
November 7, 2023
The Energy Blindness of Economics From Adam Smith to William Nordhaus
Steve Keen, Distinguished Research Fellow, University College London
November 3, 2023
Creating Global Markets for Low Greenhouse Gas Emission Natural Gas
Dr. David Allen and Dr. Arvind Ravikumar, Co-Directors of Energy Emissions Modeling and Data Lab (EEMDL) and Professors at The University of Texas at Austin