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
January 30, 2014
A Ringside Seat: What I learned from 10 years reporting on, and living through, the fracking revolution
Russell Gold, Senior Energy Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
January 23, 2014
Transforming America’s Grid through Technology, Competition & Green Power
J. Calvin Crowder, President, Electric Transmission Texas
November 21, 2013
The impacts of shale gas development on surface water quality
Sheila Olmstead, Associate Professor at UT Austin’s LBJ School of Public Affairs
November 14, 2013
Valuation of plug-in vehicle life-cycle air emissions and oil displacement benefits
Paulina Jaramillo, Assistant Research Professor at Carnegie Mellon University
November 7, 2013
Leveraging large data sets: demand side models and control in low carbon power systems
Duncan Callaway, Assistant Professor at the University of California Berkeley
October 31, 2013
Telling the U.S. Energy Story
Jim Malewitz, Energy Reporter at The Texas Tribune
October 24, 2013
The Future of Coal
Andrew Maxson, Program Manager at Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI)
October 17, 2013
Game-changer: How Business Model Innovation Transformed the US Residential Solar Market
David Arfin, Special Advisor at the Department of Energy
October 3, 2013
Transforming America’s Transportation System With Natural Gas
Balu Balagopal, CEO at Nat-G
September 26, 2013
The New Paradigm of Energy Production: Opportunities, Challenges and Implications for Global Markets
Helen Currie, Senior Economist at ConocoPhillips
September 19, 2013
Modelling energy technology policy alternatives using expert elicitations
Greg Nemet, Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin at Madison
September 12, 2013
Student Research Showcase
- Craig Andrew Milroy, PhD student, Chemical Engineering: “Lithium-sulfur batteries”
- Daniel Urieli, PhD student, Computer Science: “A Learning Agent for Heat-Pump Thermostat Control”
- Krystian Perez, PhD student, Chemical Engineering: “Smart Use of Smart Meters: Disaggregation of A/C Loads from Residential Homes”
September 5, 2013
Framing Energy Innovation Policy: Why We Fail to Learn from Experience
Jeffrey Alexander, Associate Director for Research & Analytics, SRI International
April 30, 2013
Energy with the CEO: "Energy Innovation and Entrepreneurship”
Randy Foutch, Chairman and CEO, Laredo Petroleum
April 25, 2013
United States Renewable Electricity Futures: Are High Penetrations Possible?
Ryan Wiser, Staff Scientist and Deputy Group Leader in the Electricity Markets and Policy Group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
April 11, 2013
Unlocking Energy Innovation
Richard Lester, Japan Steel Industry Professor and Head of the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, MIT
April 4, 2013
Integrating Renewables and Efficiency in the Energy Mix at Chevron
Jim Davis, President, Chevron Energy Solutions
March 28, 2013
Investing in Energy Innovation
Bob Metcalfe, Professor of Innovation and Murchison Fellow of Free Enterprise, Cockrell School of Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin
March 21, 2013
Student Research Showcase
- Josh Rhodes, Webber Energy Group, “Data-Driven Results from the Pecan Street Smart Grid Demonstration Project”
- Robert Fares, Mechanical Engineering, “Towards a Distributed Grid: A Quantitative Assessment of Community Energy Storage for Islanding”
- Steve Bourne, Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, “Thermal Storage and the Building Side of Smartgrid”
March 7, 2013
International Low-Carbon Technology Transfers: Do Intellectual Property Regimes Matter?
Varun Rai, Assistant Professor of Public Affairs and Mechanical Engineering, UT Austin
February 28, 2013
All You Ever Wanted to Know About Smart Grids
John McDonald, Director, Technical Strategy & Policy Development, GE Energy Management – Digital Energy
February 14, 2013
Recent Developments in Unconventional Gas Law and Regulation
John Hays, Adjunct Professor of Energy Law at the UT School of Law and Partner at Hays & Owens LLP
February 7, 2013
Emerging Supply-and Demand-Side Technologies are Pressuring Regulators to Change Course – But Do They Have the Political Will?
Sherman Elliott, Consultant and Former Commissioner at the Illinois Commerce Commission (Jan ’08 – Mar ’12)
January 31, 2013
Energy Conservation Behavior and the Behavioral Wedge
Thomas Dietz, Professor of Sociology and Environmental Science and Policy, Michigan State University