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 (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 |
---|---|---|
9/2/2025 | Mark McClure | Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, ResFrac | Transformative Improvements in Hydraulic Fracture Design – Applications for Oil, Gas, and Geothermal |
9/9/2025 | Sanya Carley | Mark Alan Hughes Faculty Director of the Kleinman Center, Presidential Distinguished Professor of Energy Policy and City Planning at the Stuart Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania | The Energy Insecurity and Utility Disconnection Crisis in America |
9/16/2025 | Sheldon Landsberger | Robert B. Trull Chair in Engineering Professor, Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin | Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material in the Oil and Gas Exploration Field |
9/23/2025 | Adam Grosser | Chairman & Managing Partner, UP Partners | TBD |
9/30/2025 | Wil Burns | Co-Director, Institute for Responsible Carbon Removal, American University, & Associate Director, Environmental Policy & Culture Program, Northwestern University | The Role of Carbon Dioxide Removal in Combating Climate Change |
10/7/2025 | Santiago Grijalva | Georgia Power Distinguished Professor, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, College of Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology | Emerging Electricity Grids: Business-Cyber-Physical Integration, Decentralization and Intelligence |
10/14/2025 | Julia Black | Energy Development Program Manager-Resiliency as a Service, Austin Energy | TBD |
10/21/2025 | James K. Galbraith | Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations and Professor of Government, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin Jing Chen | Assistant Professor, Finance, University of Northern British Columbia | Book Talk – Entropy Economics: The Living Basis of Value and Production |
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 Howlan | 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 |
11/18/2025 | 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 | TBD |
UT Energy Symposium Talks
February 16, 2012
Student Research Showcase
- Sudamsh Bai-Reddy, McCombs School of Business See PDF slides in a new window
- Benjamin Sigrin, Energy and Earth Resources and LBJ School of Public Affairs See PDF slides in a new window
- Dave Tuttle, Electrical and Computer Engineering See PDF slides in a new window
- Dan Weisberg, Pecan Street Inc. See PDF slides in a new window
February 8, 2012
Geopolitical Implications of Shale Gas
Amy Jaffe, Fellow in Energy Studies and Director of the Energy Forum, Baker Institute, Rice University
January 19, 2012
Utility of the Future
Roger Duncan, Research Analyst, Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy
November 17, 2011
Our Sustainable Earth
Dr. Raymond L Orbach, Director, Energy Institute, UT Austin
November 3, 2011
International Coal Markets: Coal, Climate, and China
Richard Morse, Director, Coal and CCS research, Program on Energy, Stanford University
October 27, 2011
Solving the Climate Problem at Scale: An Environmentalist’s Perspective
Armond Cohen, Executive Director, Clean Air Task Force
October 20, 2011
International Mechanisms for Climate Change Finance
Gevorg Sargsyan, Program Coordinator, Climate Investment Funds, World Bank
October 13, 2011
Impact of Wind Generation Development on Thermal Generation Investments
C.K. Woo, Senior Partner, Energy+Environmental Economics
October 6, 2011
The Eagle Ford Shale: Opportunity and Responsibility
David J. Porter, Texas Railroad Commissioner
September 29, 2011
The Future of Natural Gas in the US
Marianne Kah, Chief Economist, ConocoPhillips
September 22, 2011
New Developments in Solar Photovoltaic Technologies and Markets
Dr. Ryne Rafaelle, Vice President for Research and Associate Provost, Rochester Institute of Technology
September 15, 2011
Smart Grids and the Pecan Street Project
Brewster McCracken, Executive Director, Pecan Street Project
September 8, 2011
Regulatory Mechanisms to Foster Investments in Energy Efficiency
Jay Zarnikau, Adjunct Professor, LBJ School of Public Affairs and President, Frontier Associates
September 1, 2011
Historical Energy Overview & Why There is No Consensus for the Future
Dr. Carey King, Research Fellow, CIEEP, UT Austin