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 30th semester in fall 2026.
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 2026): 66045 (graduate students) / 65750 (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 | Job Title | Talk Title |
| September 15 | Alvin Camba | Lead Scientist & Director of Research, Lyvi AI | The Midstream Bottleneck: Why Mining More Won’t Secure America’s Critical Materials Supply Chains |
| September 22 | Zhaomiao Guo | Assistant Professor, Fariborz Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering, University of Texas at Austin | The Future of Energy Storage is Mobile: Unlocking EV Flexibility Through Market-Based V2G |
| September 29 | Martín Esteban González López | Professor, Chemical Engineering, School of Engineering and Sciences, Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Guadalajara | From Waste to Energy in Mexico: Technical and Policy Challenges for Resource Recovery in the Water–Energy Nexus |
| October 6 | Yicheng Zhu | Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin | Powering the AI Revolution: A New Voltage Regulator Enabling Vertical Power Delivery for Next-Generation AI Processors |
| October 13 | Shuo Ji & Zhiping Yang | Shuo Ji is the Director of Acquisition Processing and Geology, Viridien Group and Zhiping Yang is a Technical Project Manager, Viridien Group | Advancing Subsalt Imaging in the US Gulf: Operational and Technical Innovations in Seismic Data Acquisition From the Laconia Sparse OBN Program |
| October 20 | Tom Murphy | Professor Emeritus of the departments of Physics and Astronomy & Astrophysics at the University of California, San Diego | Questioning Modernity: What Does Energy Do? |
| October 27 | Erica Belmont | Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering at the University of Wyoming | TBD |
| November 3 | Thomas J Pierpoint | VP, Operations, Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative | TBD |
| November 10 | Charlotte De Cannière | Assistant Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics | Two Wrongs Can Sometimes Make a Right: The Environmental Benefits of Market Power in Oil |
| November 17 | Jamie Nieto | Professor of Applied Economics at the Faculty of Economics and Business, Universidad de Valladolid | Exploring the Biophysical Limits of the Energy Transition: An Integrated Assessment Model Analysis Using MEDEAS |
| December 1 | Rich Powell | CEO, Clean Energy Buyers Association | TBD |
UT Energy Symposium Talks
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