Dr. Emily Beagle is a research associate in the Webber Energy Group at The University of Texas at Austin. She currently works on energy policy and pathways to decarbonization of the global energy system with a particular focus on the deployment and use of hydrogen to reduce emissions in the hardest to abate sectors. She is interested in using technical and engineering analysis to inform energy policy development.

Prior to joining the Webber Energy Group, she was a senior associate with the Climate Aligned Industries program at RMI and led the policy work for the Green Hydrogen Catapult project. She also served as the ASME Congressional Fellow in Energy in the office of Senator Tina Smith in 2020. She holds bachelor degrees in energy systems engineering and mechanical engineering, as well as a masters and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Wyoming.

Jason Rodriguez is the CEO and Co-Founder of Austin-based start-up Froliq Inc., which is focused on accelerating clean energy workforce development and training using virtual and augmented reality. Jason also leads the strategy and direction for Zpryme's market research, events, and media work in the clean-tech and energy industry. Zpryme’s research has been cited in publications such as New York Times and Fast Company, as well as dozens of trade magazines. Zpryme produces the Energy Thought Summit (ETS), one of the premier energy events in the nation that focuses on solving complex energy problems to build a more sustainable future. 

Vaibhav Bahadur (VB) is an Associate Professor and Carl J. Eckhardt Fellow in Mechanical Engineering at UT Austin. His research interests lie in thermal-fluids sciences, materials chemistry and machine learning. His group conducts fundamental and applied research with applications in energy-water systems, carbon capture-sequestration, hydrogen and thermal management. 

Prof. Bahadur has a PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University and a Postdoc from Harvard University. He also has 4 years industry R&D experience at GE Global Research and Baker Hughes. Prof. Bahadur received the NSF CAREER Award, the SPE Petroleum Engineering Young Faculty Award, the ASME ICNMM Outstanding Early Career Award, the Google Faculty Research Award, and the ACS Doctoral New Investigator Award. He won the Society of Petroleum Engineer’s R&D Competition at the SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition (2014). Technology developed in his lab was tested on the International Space Station in 2017. 

Prof. Bahadur has authored 100+ journal/conference articles (h-index: 32) and has 9 patents issued or pending. His research has been featured on the cover of ASME’s Mechanical Engineering magazine, cover of journals (ACS Nano, Advanced Optical Materials) and in R&D magazine. He teaches courses in the areas of heat transfer, fluid mechanics and thermal management.

Dr. Ning Lin is the chief economist at Bureau of Economic Geology at UT Austin. With 15 years of experience in commercial investment and capital projects in natural gas and chemicals across the US and Asia, Dr. Lin has held key roles at Shell Trading, Koch Industries, and Tenaska. Her recent research focuses on hydrogen, particularly in geological storage and downstream applications like low-carbon ammonia and agriculture. She is part of the GeoH2 industrial consortium, and leads the HyFive initiative, an online platform designed to screen and estimate commercially viable hydrogen storage integrated with existing infrastructure.

Andy Uhler is an award-winning public radio correspondent and host of Phases & Stages: The Texas Energy Story. He’s currently a journalism fellow through a partnership between UT’s Energy Institute and Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. He started his journalism career as an undergraduate at KUT, the University of Texas at Austin NPR affiliate. He transitioned to music journalism in 2006, becoming the senior producer of Texas Music Matters. After completing a master’s degree in global policy studies at the LBJ School of Public Affairs in 2014, he returned to KUT to help launch the Texas Standard. The following year, he took a job as a sustainability reporter at American Public Media’s Marketplace, where he remained until accepting the energy journalism fellowship.

Dr. Anissa Rodriguez Dickerman is Chief Executive Officer for Pecan Street, where she works closely with the board of directors and senior leadership team to lead resource and partnership development, guide strategy, and ensure the delivery of programs that achieve measurable results at the intersection of climate solutions, technology innovation, and social justice. She has more than 20 years of experience in nonprofit leadership, resource development, social impact research, and working at the nexus of big data and place-based social justice. She applies her equity-centered research and policy approaches from the education sector to help design an equitable climate transition.
Her business development efforts have yielded over $750M in state and federally funded grants. Dickerman has held various senior positions in the nonprofit and for-profit sectors, including chief program officer, executive vice president, chief strategy officer, and chief of staff. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree and a Master of Education degree from Texas A&M University and a Ph.D. in Educational Policy and Planning from the University of Texas at Austin with a graduate portfolio in Mexican-American studies.