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 |
| 4/7/2026 | Michael Baldea | Professor, Chemical Engineering, UT Austin | Challenges and Opportunities in Manufacturing Electrification |
| 4/14/2026 | Sindhu Nathan | U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology Energy Subcommittee (Minority) | The Tumultuous Landscape of U.S. Energy Innovation Policy |
| 4/21/2026 | Erica Belmont | Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of Wyoming | TBD |
UT Energy Symposium Talks
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
Energy Storage in California: From Innovation to Installation
Alex Luce, Program Manager, CalCharge
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
Averting Energy Catastrophe: Why I Bet the Farm on China and Innovation
Matthew Nordan, Managing Partner, MNL Partners
January 28, 2016
Economic Perspectives on Oil and Gas Royalties
Tim Fitzgerald, Professor, Texas Tech
November 19, 2015
Student Research Showcase
Sebastian Souyris, PhD candidate in UT’s McCombs School of Business: Peer Effects in the Diffusion of Solar panels – A Dynamic Discrete Choice Approach
Sean Wood, Chemical Engineering PhD student: Looking Towards Higher-Capacity Anode Materials for Lithium-ion Batteries.
November 12, 2015
The Road to Paris: Paved with Domestic Climate Policy
Kate Larsen, Director, Rhodium Group
November 5, 2015
The Social Costs of Energy Production and Use in the United States: Consequences for Measures of Output and Growth
Nicholas Muller, Associate Professor, Middlebury College
October 29, 2015
Solar Energy in the United States – Its Growth and the Challenges Ahead
Francis O’Sullivan, Director, Research and Analysis, MIT
October 15, 2015
ENGIE and the Energy Transition
Zin Smati, President & CEO, GDF Suez Energy North America
October 8, 2015
Financing the Clean Economy
Jonathan Silver, President & CEO, Greenbanc Global
September 24, 2015
The Low Slow Return Blues: Why the Venture Capitalists Have Difficulties with Clean Technology
Martin Kenney, Professor, University of California – Davis
September 17, 2015
Perceptions of Energy and Water Use
Shahzeen Attari, Assistant Professor, Indiana University
September 10, 2015
Energy Games: Gamification for Decision-Making and Behavior Change in Solar Adoption
Ariane Beck, Research Fellow, the University of Texas at Austin
September 3, 2015
An Economist’s Perspective on Public Energy R&D
David Popp, Professor, Syracuse University
April 30, 2015
The Future of Vehicle Transportation — The Better Battery
Nihar Patel, Former Vice President, North American Business Strategy Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A., Inc.
April 23, 2015
Rethinking Our Energy Future: Grand Challenges and Opportunities
Doug Arent, Executive Director, Joint Institute for Strategic Energy Analysis, National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)
April 16, 2015
2015 State of Electric Vehicles
Dave Tuttle, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
April 9, 2015
Student Research Showcase
- Margaret Cook (CAEE)
- Donna Chen (CAEE)
- Alex Headley (ME)
April 2, 2015
Energy Infrastructure with Architectural and Civil Engineers
CAEE team presentation by Richard Corsi, Lance Manuel, Atila Novoselac, Kara Kockelman, Charles Werth, Kevin Folliard
March 26, 2015
Past, Present, and Future Climate Change Impacts on Texas Water: Science and Policy
Jay Banner, Professor, Department of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, The University of Texas at Austin
March 12, 2015
Oil-Climate Index: GHG Emissions Along the Oil Production Supply Chain
David Livingston, Associate, Energy and Climate Program, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
March 5, 2015
Energy and Development in Asia
Richie Ahuja, Regional Director for Asia, Environmental Defense Fund
February 26, 2015
Ten Strategies to Systematically Exploit All Options to Cope with Anthropogenic Climate Change
Kelly Klima, Research Scientist, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
February 19, 2015
Energy and Climate Goals in Nordic Countries and Implications for the U.S.
Benjamin Sovacool, Director, Danish Center for Energy Technology at AU-Herning and Professor of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark