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

DateSpeakerTalk Title
1/20/2026Jean-François Mercure | Professor of Climate Policy, University of Exeter Business School (UK), Director of the unit Exeter Climate PolicyGlobal scenarios for Ministries of Finance to Inform Resilient Economic Transformation to Zero-Carbon
1/27/2026Tom Murphy | Emeritus Professor of Physics, Astronomy and Astrophysics, University of California at San DiegoQuestioning Modernity: What does Energy Do?
2/3/2026Andrejka Bertanova | Founder, CEO, and Chairman of Dynamix CorporationTBD
2/10/2026Jake Jordan | Chief Science Officer, Mati CarbonTBD
2/17/2026Michael Craig | Associate Professor, School for Environment and Sustainability and the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering, University of MichiganDecarbonizing the Electric Power Sector in a Warming World 
2/24/2026Aditya Ramji | Director, Global South Centre on Clean Transportation, University of California, DavisShaping Industrial Policy with Vehicle Electrification - Analysing Global EV supply chains and implications
3/3/2026Kelly Sims Gallagher | Dean of The Fletcher School at Tufts UniversityShifting Priorities in U.S. Energy Innovation Policy
3/10/2026Joe DeCarolis | Head and Professor, Department of Engineering and Public Policy, Carnegie Mellon UniversityLeveraging Energy Data and Analysis to Navigate a Rapidly Changing Energy Landscape
3/24/2026Sara Eftekharnejad | Associate Professor, SyracuseCoE Faculty Fellow, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Syracuse UniversityTBD
3/31/2026Kyle Chan | Fellow – Foreign Policy, John L. Thornton China Center, Brookings InstitutionChina’s Clean Tech Industrial Strategy
4/7/2026Michael Baldea | Professor, Chemical Engineering, UT AustinElectrification of Industry for lower-carbon emissions, the EPIX project
4/14/2026Sindhu Nathan | U.S. House Committe on Science and TechnologyTBD
4/21/2026Erica Belmont | Associate Professor, Mechanical Engineering, University of WyomingTBD

UT Energy Symposium Talks

Displaying 201 - 225 of 351

January 25, 2018

Food Security: Thermodynamics, Ecology, and Economics

John R Schramski, Associate Professor, College of Engineering, University of Georgia

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November 30, 2017

Drivers of technological improvement in clean energy

Jessika Trancik, Professor in Energy Studies, Institute for Data, Systems and Society at MIT

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November 16, 2017

Notes on 100% Renewable Cities in Texas

Neil McAndrews, Economist with Austin Chapter of US Association for Energy Economics

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October 26, 2017

Grid Technology Trends and the Integration of Renewables

Juan Torres, Associate Laboratory Director, Energy Systems Integration, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

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October 19, 2017

Cutting Carbon in Maritime Cargo Shipping

Maria Gallucci, 2017-2018 UT Energy Journalism Fellow

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October 12, 2017

Coupling Heat Storage to Nuclear Reactors For Variable Electricity Output with Base-Load Reactor Operations

Charles Forsberg, Director and a Principle Investigator of the DOE Integrated Research Project on Fluoride-salt-cooled High-Temperature Reactors (FHRs), MIT

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October 5, 2017

Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems

Kevan Weaver, Director of Technology Integration, TerraPower

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September 28, 2017

September 21, 2017

Electrolyte Choices for Rechargeable Batteries

John Goodenough, Virginia H. Cockrell Centennial Chair in Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Texas at Austin

September 14, 2017

U.S. Climate Policy: The Importance of Thinking and Acting Regionally

Dave Adelman, Professor, School of Law, The University of Texas at Austin

September 7, 2017

Keeping The Lights On As We Transition To Renewables

Gene Preston, CEO, Transmission Adequacy Consulting

April 27, 2017

Redesigning Civilization: And Other Small Things

Matt Grocoff, Principal, THRIVE Collaborative

April 20, 2017

ExxonMobil 2017 Outlook for Energy: A View to 2040

Robert Gardner, Manager, Economics and Energy Division, Corporate Strategic Planning at ExxonMobil

April 13, 2017

The Evolving Utility Business Models – The Electric Cooperative Story

Peter Muhoro, Director of Energy Research and Strategies, Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC)

April 6, 2017

Mexican Energy Reform in a time of Insecurity

Lorne Matalon, UT Energy Journalism Fellow and reporter for National Public Radio in West Texas

March 30, 2017

Energy and the Anthropocene

David Biello, Science Curator at TED Conferences

March 23, 2017

U.S. & World Nuclear Energy

Dale Klein, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research for the UT System and Professor of Mechanical Engineering

March 9, 2017

The Geopolitics of Oil: Western Hemisphere Scenarios

Jorge Piñon, Director of UT Austin’s Latin America and Caribbean Energy Program

March 2, 2017

The Art of Doing Good Science: Experiences in Interdisciplinary Energy Research

Varun Rai, Associate Professor at the UT Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs

February 23, 2017

February 16, 2017

Decoupling energy consumption from GDP under induced technological change

Eric Kemp-Benedict, Senior Scientist, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

February 2, 2017

Climate Change, Methane, and the Global Oil and Gas system

Daniel Zavala, post-doctoral-scientist at the Environmental Defense Fund

January 26, 2017

Beyond the Texas Restructured Electric Markets Giving Power and Value to Consumer Energy Resources

Jon Wellinghoff, Chief Policy Officer at SolarCity and former Chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (2009 – 2013)