2022 Speakers





UT Energy Week 2022

Speakers and Panelists

a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

Marwa Al-Ansary
General Manager, Long Range Research and Experimentation
Shell

Industrial Decarbonization

Marwa Al-Ansary is the General Manager, Long Range Research and Experimentation at Shell. Formerly, she served as Shell’s Australian Environmental Manager where she managed operative and non-operative ventures, natural gas and new energies and delivered Shell’s carbon strategy supporting the Net Carbon Footprint aspirations.

Prior to her employment with Shell, Marwa worked in project management for the construction sector and had several years of teaching experience at Cambridge University (UK). She has previously held positions at Shell in Health, Safety, Security and Environment and in Technology, with her work experience spanning many countries such as Egypt, the UK, The Netherlands and Qatar. Marwa has received numerous awards and has several publications and patents in the fields of innovative materials, waste treatment and conversion, and construction management. Marwa Al-Ansary is a civil/environmental engineer with a PhD degree in geo-environmental engineering from Cambridge University and an MSc in Environmental Science from Strathclyde University. She also holds a BSc and an MSc in Construction Engineering from the American University in Cairo.

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Kathy AyersKathy Ayers
Vice President of Research and Development
Nel Hydrogen

Hydrogen Generation and Distribution

Dr. Kathy Ayers is Vice President of R&D for Nel Hydrogen US, with responsibility for developing and executing Nel’s technology strategy in proton exchange membrane electrolysis. Kathy received her Ph.D. in chemistry at Caltech and spent 10 years in the battery industry before joining Nel in 2007. She manages a broad portfolio of projects across a range of collaborators in academia, industry, and National Labs. Her team is primarily responsible for Nel’s stack activities, spanning the product development process from fundamentals to implementation.

Dr. Ayers has served in multiple scientific advisory roles including two Federal level advisory committees (HTAC and BESAC). She received R&D Awards at the 2012 and 2021 DOE Merit Reviews from the HFTO Production Team, and an American Chemical Society Women Chemists Committee 2014 Rising Stars Award. She is a Fellow of the Electrochemical Society.

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Omeed BadkoobehOmeed Badkoobeh
Chief Executive Officer
Yotta Energy
Emergence of the Energy Innovation Ecosystem in Austin, Texas

Cutting edge, environmentally sound solutions for the future are at the core of his professional philosophy. He has been fortunate to work in a variety of fields across different continents, bringing together technical innovation and environmental sustainability for everyday living. His international experience has afforded him a deep understanding of the importance of cultural connections in a competitive, global market.

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Tom BensonTom Benson
Manager of Global Exploration
Lithium Americas Corp.

Critical Minerals Supply Chain: Addressing an Energy Transition Bottleneck

Tom Benson is a leading global expert in the geology and origin of lithium resources with a Ph.D. in volcanology and economic geology from Stanford University. He has vast industry experience in the exploration of lithium and other critical ore minerals. He has published in several peer-reviewed journals on lithium metallogeny, volcanology, economic geology, sedimentology, geochronology, and geochemistry. He has received his undergraduate degree from Harvard University in Earth and Planetary Sciences and Fulbright Scholar in Iceland. Additionally, Benson has international research experience in the geology, geochemistry, and geophysics of geothermal systems.

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John BergerJohn Berger
Chief Executive Officer
Sunnova Energy International Inc.

Keynote Speaker

Mr. Berger founded Sunnova in 2012 and has since then served as Chief Executive Officer, President and Chairman of the Board. With more than two decades of experience in the electric power industry, Mr. Berger is an energy entrepreneur who has always supported free market competition, consumer choice and the advancement of energy technology to power energy independence. Before Sunnova, Mr. Berger served as Founder and Chief Executive Officer at SunCap Financial, a residential solar service provider. He also founded Standard Renewable Energy, a provider and installer of renewable energy and energy-efficient products and services. Mr. Berger received his Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and graduated cum laude from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering.

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Erika BierschbachErika Bierschbach
Vice President, Energy Market Operations and Resource Planning
Austin Energy

Improving Grid Resilience

Erika Bierschbach was appointed Vice President of Energy Market Operations and Resource Planning in April 2019. Bierschbach is responsible for the utility’s physical and financial power portfolio in the ERCOT wholesale electric market. She oversees the origination of the utility’s renewable power purchase agreements and manages the Qualified Scheduling Entity (QSE) operations for Austin Energy’s owned and contracted resources.

Bierschbach has more than 25 years of experience in energy markets, including positions in energy risk management at Enron Capital and Trade and Duke Energy Trading and Marketing. She joined Austin Energy in 2001 to develop, implement and later manage the utility’s energy hedging program. Bierschbach’s prior positions at Austin Energy include Manager of Energy Supply and Risk Management as well as both Manager and Director of Energy Market Operations. She has established more than 2,250 Megawatts of renewable energy contracts during her tenure at Austin Energy. Bierschbach holds bachelor’s degrees in Economics and French from Texas A&M University in College Station and is fluent in French and Spanish.

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Andy BowmanAndy Bowman
Chief Executive Officer
Jupiter Power LLC

Emergence of the Energy Innovation Ecosystem in Austin, Texas

Andrew Bowman is a serial clean energy entrepreneur and published author. Over his 25-year career in renewable energy he developed or had management responsibility for development of more than 3,600MW of US wind and solar projects, representing about 2.5% of all those built through 2017. Bowman is CEO and founder of Jupiter Power LLC, a leading US stand-alone utility scale energy storage company. Backed by EnCap Investment, LP’s Energy Transition Fund I, Jupiter deploys novel applications of energy storage technologies in select US markets. Jupiter is currently completing more than 650 megawatt-hours of battery projects, including the largest ever built in Texas, the 200 megawatt-hour Crossett Power Management Project. The company is developing 12GW of additional projects from California to Maine.

Prior to forming Jupiter, Bowman was president of Pioneer Green Energy LLC, a company he founded in 2009 with six others and ran until 2015. As an independent renewable energy company Pioneer developed high value wind and solar projects and leveraged relationships with large power companies to execute 1,251MW of wind and solar projects it developed in California, Texas and Maryland. Prior to Pioneer, Bowman served as Chief Development Officer at E.On Climate & Renewables North America, now RWE Renewables. E.On had acquired US renewable energy company Airtricity North America in 2008, which in turn in 2005 had acquired Renewable Generation Inc., a company Bowman founded with two others in 2001. Bowman led development for these three companies across North America over 2001-2009, first as President of Renewable Generation Inc., then as Senior Vice President, Development at Airtricity and finally as CDO at EC&RNA. His work during this time led to 1,720MW of wind projects across the US.

Bowman’s book, entitled ‘The West Texas Power Plant That Saved the World’, was published in late 2021 by Texas Tech University Press. Bowman has graduate degrees from the University of Texas School of Law and the LBJ School of Public Affairs and graduated from Yale University in 1991. He is an adjunct professor at UT Law School and lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and three children.

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Todd BradyTodd Brady
Vice President, Global Public Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer
Intel Corporation

Industrial Decarbonization

Todd Brady is the Vice President of Global Public Affairs and Sustainability for Intel Corporation. In this role he leads state and local government affairs, media and community relations, corporate volunteerism and sustainability at the company’s major manufacturing and office locations around the globe. In addition to overseeing regulatory and community engagement strategies in the US, China, Southeast Asia, Israel, Ireland and Latin America, he directs Intel’s global initiatives to make Intel “smart & green” by leading corporate-wide sustainability programs such as climate, energy and water conservation, green design and the integration of internet of things (IoT) solutions to create smart and green offices, buildings and facilities of the future.

During his 20+ years at Intel, Todd has represented the company publicly in numerous forums and led industry-wide initiatives in many national and international committees. He has authored more than 20 papers in scientific journals and conference proceedings on a variety of sustainability topics. In 2009, he was named by Scientific American as one of ten outstanding leaders involved in research, business or policy pursuits that have advanced science and technology. Todd holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and a MS in Environmental Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

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Mose BucheleMose Buchele
Senior Correspondent, Energy and Environment
KUT Austin

Improving Grid Resilience

Mose Buchele focuses on energy and environmental reporting at KUT. He has been on staff at KUT since 2009, covering local and state issues. Mose has also worked as a blogger on politics and an education reporter at his hometown paper in Western Massachusetts. He holds master’s degrees in Latin American Studies and Journalism from UT Austin.

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Tristan ChildressTristan Childress
Economic Geologist
Bureau of Economic Geology, UT Austin

Critical Minerals Supply Chain: Addressing an Energy Transition Bottleneck

Tristan Childress received his Ph.D. while studying economic geology at the University of Michigan. His thesis and published research centered on using stable isotopes and trace elements in volcanic mineral deposits to elucidate their genetic origins. During two summer seasons, Tristan served as an exploration geologist at the sedimentary Pb-Zn Red Dog Mine in Alaska, performing duties ranging from typical core logging to regional geochemical analysis. Upon graduation, he spent a year conducting successful exploration drilling at the Hog Mountain orogenic gold deposit in Alabama. Tristan joined the Bureau in 2020 as an economic geologist and is applying his expertise in exploration geochemistry and analytical techniques to the critical mineral deposits of Texas to better understand their occurrences and distributions.

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Richard ChuchlaRichard Chuchla
Energy and Earth Resources Graduate Program Director
Jackson School of Geosciences, UT Austin

Critical Minerals Supply Chain: Addressing an Energy Transition Bottleneck

Richard was born and raised in Chile. He received his undergraduate degree in geology from Cornell and his Master’s from the University of Texas at Austin. He retired as an executive from ExxonMobil in 2015 after a 36-year career with the company. Richard has broad experience in minerals (base and precious metals), coal, oil and gas exploration, development, research and management, including a corporate assignment as upstream strategic advisor to ExxonMobil’s Corporate Management Committee and CEO. Richard has worked in basins and has participated in major discoveries around the world. He was appointed as the Director of the Energy and Earth Sciences (EER) graduate program and Leslie Bowling Professor in Geological Sciences in 2016.

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Shawn CumberlandShawn Cumberland
Managing Partner, Energy Transition
EnCap Investments L.P.

Finance of Emerging Energy Startups

Michael S. Cumberland (“Shawn”) (60) is a Managing Partner of EnCap Energy Transition Fund (EETF) and has over 30 of years of experience in power and gas infrastructure. Just prior to forming EETF, Mr. Cumberland was with Prisma Energy II, a private entity focused on investments in energy storage. Previously, from 2016 to 2018, Mr. Cumberland was Head of North America for Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners and established the U.S. office. During his tenure at Quinbrook, the U.S. team originated three major portfolio companies: Scout Clean Energy (a wind development company), GlidePath Power Solutions (a battery and distributed power developer), and Arevia Power (developer of the Gemini Solar Project in Nevada, approximately 1GW). He originated and managed the investment in Scout, which represents one of Quinbrook’s largest investments.

From 2002 to 2016, Mr. Cumberland was with Arctas Capital Group, a company he co-founded that was an investor and advisor on several renewables and other energy infrastructure projects, both domestically and internationally. Previously, Mr. Cumberland was with Enron, where he held senior executive roles, including President of Enron Caribbean, a role that was responsible for 15 energy businesses in eight countries (including power generation and distribution, gas pipelines, gas processing, LNG, and LPG) and served on the boards of two regionally listed companies. Mr. Cumberland was also previously a Senior Managing Director at El Paso Merchant Energy, and was a co-founder of both The Wing Group and Power Pacific Company –firms that developed power infrastructure investments in emerging markets. Mr. Cumberland started his career in 1986 as a corporate securities and finance attorney in the Houston and London offices of Vinson & Elkins L.L.P.

Mr. Cumberland holds a Juris Doctor degree and a B.B.A. in Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin where he graduated with honors and highest honors, respectively. He serves on the Advisory Board of the renowned Energy Institute of the University of Texas, a multi-disciplinary research organization that taps 350 energy-related facility and researchers across 30 energy centers. Mr. Cumberland previously served on the board of directors and audit committee for Saavi Energia, the fourth largest independent power company in Mexico, until the sale of the company by Actis Capital in August 2021. Mr. Cumberland also sits on the boards of Catalyze, Broad Reach Power, Jupiter Power, Solar Proponent and Triple Oak Power.

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Hugh DaigleHugh Daigle
Associate Professor
Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, UT Austin

Hydrogen Generation and Distribution

Daigle’s research focuses on petrophysical and reservoir engineering aspects of sustainable energy using a combination of laboratory experiments and numerical simulation. He holds a BA in Earth and Planetary Sciences from Harvard University and a PhD in Earth Science from Rice University. Specific areas of interest include methane hydrate formation and response to marine hydrate systems to external perturbations; petrophysical measurement and assessment techniques; geo hazard detection and prediction; and hydrogen generation and storage. His work is aimed at improving understanding of subsurface fluid flow for the sustainable energy transition.

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Mojdeh DelshadMojdeh Delshad
Research Professor
Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, UT Austin
Hydrogen Storage and the Power Sector

Mojdeh Delshad is a research professor in the Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. She served as the Vice President (2013-2014) and the President/CEO (2015-2019) of Ultimate EOR Services LLC. She served as the assistant director for the Department of Energy-funded Center of Frontiers of Subsurface Energy Security (CFSES) from 2009-2014. She holds a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from Sharif University in Iran and MS and Ph.D. degrees in Petroleum Engineering from The University of Texas at Austin. She has over 30 years of experience in modeling multiphase flow, property modeling, and reservoir simulation of enhanced oil recovery processes and more than 10 years of experience in modeling and designing subsurface contaminant transport and remediation processes. She has 88 journal publications and 139 paper proceedings.

Her current research projects are Mechanistic understanding and modeling key mechanisms for CO2 and hydrogen storage in deep saline aquifers and depleted oil and gas reservoirs. Modeling multiphase reactive transport (geochemical and biological reactions). Modeling and field design of conformance microgels; chemical and gas enhanced oil recovery processes; low salinity waterflooding; and chemically altered wettability methods. Numerical simulator development and application to EOR processes and CO2 sequestration in lab and field scales; Petrophysical property modeling; Numerical modeling and EOR processes in naturally fractured reservoirs; Groundwater modeling and remediation. Application and analysis of field tracer tests.

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Teague EganTeague Egan
Chief Executive Officer
EnergyX

Emergence of the Energy Innovation Ecosystem in Austin, Texas

Teague Egan is the Founder and CEO of EnergyX. He is responsible for all aspects of building the company into the world leader in renewable energy technologies. His focus is on commercializing the LiTAS™ technology for direct lithium extraction and the companies SoLiS™ solid state battery electrolytes. He believes 100-hour work weeks, and little sleep is the recipe to success. Teague’s background is one of serial entrepreneurship, investing, inventing, and philanthropy. He has been investing in public sector energy assets and sustainable technologies since 2013.

Prior to EnergyX, he previously started businesses in entertainment, and is also the inventor of energyDNA –a patented multi-component graphene textile fiber technology. Teague founded Innovation Factory VC, a venture capital fund focused on tech, life sciences, real estate, and consumer products in 2012. Most of his philanthropic efforts are associated with the Thomas E. Smith Foundation. He is the co-founder of Dance ForParalysis, The Reality Ride Challenge, and The Kindness Project. Teague is an alumnus of University of Southern California’s Marshall School of Business and received his Bachelor’s degree in Entrepreneurship. Egan went on to complete the Executive Program in exponential technology including artificial intelligence, synthetic biology, and nanotechnology at Singularity University.

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Peter EichhublPeter Eichhubl
Senior Research Scientist
Bureau of Economic Geology, UT Austin
Hydrogen Storage and the Power Sector

Peter Eichhubl’s research combines the fields of fault and fracture mechanics and low-temperature geochemistry addressing deformation mechanisms of the upper crust, structural control of mass and heat transfer in sedimentary basins, effects of chemical mass transfer on the mechanical and hydraulic behavior of fractures and faults, and the chemical interaction between fluids and minerals.

Dr. Eichhubl’s research is of applied interest to groundwater management, the exploration and production of hydrocarbons, geothermal energy, and the subsurface storage of anthropogenic CO2 and hydrogen. Fundamental aspects of this research have implications for the seismic and aseismic deformation of the Earth’s upper crust, the interaction of subsurface fluids with the atmosphere and biosphere, and for energy resources. Mr. Eichhubl received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

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Mike FreemanMike Freeman
Chief Executive Officer
Innosphere Ventures

Finance of Emerging Energy Startups

Mike Freeman is the Chief Executive Officer of Innosphere Ventures and a General Partner of Innosphere Ventures Fund where he leads the Fund’s MedTech and Cleantech investments. He also led the formation of Innosphere Fund II and II. Fund I exits include Incident Response Technologies and Boulder AI. Notable investments led include Aspero Medical, GelSana, Catalyze, and Micro Grid Labs.

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Evan FryeEvan Frye
Stranded Natural Gas Program Manager
US Department of Energy

Hydrogen Storage and the Power Sector

Evan Frye is a Physical Scientist in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management -Division of Methane Mitigation Technologies. He joined DOE in 2014 after working in upstream oil and natural gas production and analysis. He has previously served as an Economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and a Geologist at the U.S. Energy Information Administration. His current portfolio includes natural gas decarbonization and hydrogen technologies across production, transportation, and storage R&D efforts. He holds a BA in Environmental Science/Geosciences from Franklin & Marshall College, an MSc in Energy and Mineral Engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, and an MBA from The Johns Hopkins University.

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Eric GimonEric Gimon
Senior Fellow
Energy Innovation

Improving Grid Resilience

Eric Gimon consults as a technical expert, research scholar, and policy adviser with Energy Innovation, where he works with the Power Sector Transformation team to develop innovative thinking on policy solutions for clean, reliable, and affordable electric power in the U.S. More specifically, Eric works on questions of renewable energy integration, both in the context of today’s challenges as well as for future pathways, with a current focus on electricity power markets. Eric holds B.S. and M.S. degrees from Stanford University in mathematics and physics, as well as a Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. He had a 15-year active career as a researcher in quantum gravity and high energy physics in some of the world’s top research institutions. Eric’s work at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and University of California, Berkeley, as well as an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellowship with two offices at the Department of Energy inspired his transition to climate and energy policy.

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Kevin HarrisKevin Harris
Director of Sales and Business Development, Americas Hydrogen Infrastructure
Hexagon Purus

Hydrogen Storage and the Power Sector

Kevin Harris has been engaged in developing the hydrogen energy economy since 2001 and currently works in the fields of Business Development, Marketing, and Sales for Hexagon Purus. Kevin is responsible for growing Hexagon’s business in the Americas in hydrogen refueling, stationary, and distribution applications. He is actively involved in organizations that promote theuse of hydrogen and fuel cells including the California Hydrogen Business Council, the California Fuel Cell Partnership, and the Fuel Cell & Hydrogen Energy Association. Kevin holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo, and is an MBA graduate from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

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Paul HobbyPaul Hobby
Founding and Managing Partner
Genesis Park

Finance of Emerging Energy Startups

Paul is a founding partner of Genesis Park and GP Capital. He has extensive M&A experience, decades of diverse private and public company board service, and proven management ability. Mr. Hobby’s sector expertise ranges from network infrastructure to downstream energy (both renewable and traditional gas fired) to media and telecom. His executive roles include Columbine JDS Systems, which became the world’s largest provider of back-office media software, Alpheus Communications, which built out the largest alternative fiber optic network in Texas, and Texas Monthly. He has been involved in solar power for over a decade as a consumer, as a third-party financing source, as an investor, and most recently as founding Chairman of Flic Financial, a residential solar finance business.

Paul has served as the Chairman of the Texas Ethics Commission, the Greater Houston Partnership, the Houston Branch of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, the Texas General Services Commission, and the Texas Business Hall of Fame. Paul holds a BA in History from the University of Virginia and a JD from the University of Texas Law School.

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Natalie KhtikianNatalie Khtikian
Vice President and Head of Business Development
ClimeWorks

Carbon Removal Entering the Mainstream

Natalie Khtikian is Climeworks’ first employee in North America and our new Market Manager in the US. Before joining Climeworks, Natalie worked in tech at Wildfire, Waze and Google before going back to study for an MSc in Microbiology, which focused on how anthropogenic climate change impacts oyster diseases. She’s also an ex-ballerina and studied science fiction literature at the University of California, Berkeley. Natalie was motivated to work for Climeworks as they are taking direct action to reverse climate change, and she wanted to be part of making that a reality. She says the most inspiring aspect of working for Climeworks is its smart and focused team and says it’s stimulating to work with a group that is dedicated to creating positive change and doing it in the right way.

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Carey King
Assistant Director and Research Scientist
UT Energy Institute

Keynote Talk: Don’t Mess with Texas: Getting the Lone Star State to Net-zero by 2050

Dr. Carey W King performs interdisciplinary research related to how energy systems interact within the economy and environment as well as how our policy and social systems can make decisions and tradeoffs among these often competing factors. The past performance of our energy systems is no guarantee of future returns, yet we must understand the development of past energy systems.  Carey’s research goals center on rigorous interpretations of the past to determine the most probable future energy pathways.

Carey is a Research Scientist at The University of Texas at Austin and Assistant Director at the Energy Institute. He also has affiliations within the Jackson School of Geosciences, the McCombs School of Business, and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. He has both a B.S. with high honors and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Texas at Austin. He has published technical articles in academic journals such as Ecological Economics, Environmental Science and Technology, Environmental Research Letters, Nature Geoscience, Energy Policy, Sustainability, and Ecology and Society. He has also written commentary for or been interviewed by MarketPlace, American Scientist and Earth magazines, and major newspapers such as the The Hill, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express News, and Austin American-Statesman.

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Brian KorgelBrian Korgel
Director
Energy Institute, UT Austin

Emergence of the Energy Innovation Ecosystem in Austin, Texas
Industrial Decarbonization

Brian A. Korgel is the Director of The University of Texas at Austin Energy Institute, Rashid Engineering Regents Chair Professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering and Education and Outreach Director for the Center for Dynamics and Control of Materials (CDCM) Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (MRSEC). He also directs the Industry/University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) for a Solar Powered Future (SPF2050), the Nanotechnologies area of the UT Austin Portugal Program at UT, and serves as Associate Editor of the journal, Chemistry of Materials. He is a former Fulbright Fellow and has been Visiting Professor at the University of Alicante in Spain, the Université Josef Fourier in France and the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing.

He received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from UCLA in 1997 and was a post-doctoral fellow at University College Dublin, Ireland, in the Department of Chemistry. He has given more than 260 invited talks and published more than 280 papers. He is also an artist, exploring language and human/technology cohabitation. He has co-founded two companies, Innovalight and Piñon Technologies, and received various honors including the 2012 Professional Progress Award from the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and election to Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is also a member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE).

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Reid LarsonReid Larson
Director of H2 Sales Americas
Chart Industries

Hydrogen Storage and Power Sector

Chart Industries is the leading global manufacturer of cryogenic solutions, and has been manufacturing liquid hydrogen storage tanks, trailers, and related equipment for 55+ years.

Reid Larson, Director of Hydrogen Sales in the Americas, has been with Chart Industries since 2011 with experience in sales, engineered systems, product engineering, product management, applications development, and strategic project management. Much of his time at Chart has been spent focused on products and opportunities for the Hydrogen and LNG market, including developing new products for emerging alternative fuel vehicles, including hydrogen infrastructure for fuel cell vehicles and related end uses. Most recently, Reid was a member of the Emerging Leader Program at Chart. He has a M.S.in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Minnesota – Twin Cities, and a B.S. in Physics from Augsburg University.

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Jan MazurekJan Mazurek
Senior Director, Carbon Dioxide Removal
ClimateWorks Foundation

Carbon Removal Entering the Mainstream

Jan Mazurek, PhD directs ClimateWorks’ Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) Fund. She has worked on energy and environmental policy at the federal and state level for more than 25 years. Prior to ClimateWorks, then-Governor Schwarzenegger (R-CA) appointed her to serve as Senior Policy Advisor to the California Air Resources Board (CARB). Before CARB, Mazurek was a member of the Obama-Biden Presidential Transition Team, advising on U.S. Environmental Protection Agency toxics, pesticides, and children’s health issues.

She has published two books with the MIT Press and Johns Hopkins University presses, respectively, and more than 100 other publications, including op-eds in major U.S. newspapers. Dr. Mazurek also has testified on environmental policy matters before U.S. Congressional subcommittees. She holds a doctorate from UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs.

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Lorena MoscardelliLorena Moscardelli
Research Scientist
Bureau of Economic Geology, UT Austin

Hydrogen Generation and Distribution

Dr. Lorena Moscardelli is a Research Scientist and leader of the State of Texas Advanced Resource Recovery (STARR) program at BEG. Her expertise is in seismic geomorphology and interpretation, sedimentology and stratigraphy and geoscience data integration. She received a degree in Geological Engineering from Central University of Venezuela (2000) and a PhD in Geological Sciences from The University of Texas at Austin (2007).

She specializes in the study of deep-water deposits with emphasis on subaqueous landslides, deep-water mixed siliciclastic-carbonate systems and planetary geology. She started her career as an exploration geologist working for PDVSA (2000 –2003). Prior to her current position at STARR, Dr. Moscardelli was a Principal Researcher at Equinor (2013 –2021) where she performed a wide range of activities from research in the Americas to field development in the Norwegian Continental Shelf. Her BEG career includes the co-funding and co-direction of the Quantitative Clastic Laboratory (QCL) (2007-2013) and her actual involvement as leader of STARR.

Most recently, Dr. Moscardelli has taken a strong interest in understanding the role of geoscience research as part of the ongoing energy transition while contributing to STARR’s main mission of conducting geologic research resulting in the increase of production and profitability of energy resources in the State of Texas.

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Bruce NiemeyerBruce L. Niemeyer
Vice President of Strategy and Sustainability
Chevron

UT Energy Symposium

Bruce L. Niemeyer, 60, is corporate vice president of Strategy and Sustainability for Chevron Corporation, a role he assumed in 2018. He is responsible for guiding development of the company’s key strategies, including capital allocation and sustainability efforts. Prior to his current role, Niemeyer served as vice president of Chevron’s Mid-Continent business unit from 2013 to 2018. In that role, he was responsible for developing assets in the mid-continent United States, including significant Permian assets in Texas and New Mexico.

Niemeyer was vice president of the Appalachian/Michigan business unit from 2011 to 2013, where he led the company’s development of natural gas from shale in the northeast U.S. Prior to that, he served as general manager of strategy and planning for Chevron North America Exploration and Production Co. Niemeyer is a member of the Oxford Energy Policy Club. Niemeyer joined Texaco in 2000 from Atlantic Richfield Co. He earned a bachelor’s degree in petroleum engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and is a registered petroleum engineer in the state of California.

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Parans ParanthamanParans Paranthaman
Corporate Fellow, Chemical Sciences Division
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

Critical Minerals Supply Chain: Addressing an Energy Transition Bottleneck

Dr. Parans Paranthaman is a Corporate Fellow in the Chemical Sciences Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Paranthaman is also a fellow of the National Academy of Inventors, Materials Research Society, AAAS, American Physical Society, American Ceramic Society, ASM International and the Institute of Physics, London, UK.

He earned his Ph.D. in Materials Science and Solid State Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow with 2019 Chemistry Nobel prize winner Professor John Goodenough at the University of Texas, Austin and a Research Associate with Professor Allen Hermann at University of Colorado, Boulder. He joined the Chemistry Department at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in May 1993. He has authored or co-authored more than 446 journal publications with >20,875 citations and an “h-index” of 69and a total of >75 inventions including 54 issued U.S. Patents related to his research. He has licensed his technologies to seven industries for commercialization.

His present research focuses on the Development of Additive Manufacturing of N95 Fabrics and Antiviral Coatings, Additive Manufacturing of Permanent Magnets and Motors, Lithium Separation From Geothermal Brine, Recovery of Carbon From Recycled Tires For Clean Energy Applications, and Development of Electrode Materials for Energy Storage Applications.

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Ari PribadiAri Pribadi
Senior Managing Director, Head of Chicago and Co-Chair of D&I Committee
Marathon Capital

Finance of Emerging Energy Startups

Ari Pribadi is the Senior Managing Director, Co-Head of D&I Committee, and Head of Marathon Capital’s Chicago office. He is a corporate finance, project finance, and M&A specialist with more than 28 years of experience in the power sector. At Marathon, Mr.Pribadi advises clients on M&A transactions, debt, equity, tax equity capital raise transactions, and strategic consulting engagements.

During his 18 years with Marathon, Mr. Pribadi has worked on more than 30 successful transactions including advising TC Energy on its energy transition strategy and execution, advising Nestle on its RE-100 compliance efforts, the sale of ib Vogt, which is the largest global independent utility-scale solar company, the sale of New Jersey Resources’ four operating wind farms to Skyline Renewables ($209 million), Innogy’s acquisition of EverPower’s development platform and 2GW of pipeline from Terra Firma, CMS Enterprises’ renewable market entry strategy, the capital raise for Landmark Infrastructure’s renewable assets ($200 million facility), the sale of Wind Capital Group’s 351 MW operating wind farms to Pattern Energy ($242 million), the sale of FirstWind to SunEdison ($2.4 billion), the preferred equity raise for Edison Mission Energy ($560 million), the sale of Allco’s Alta 1,500MW wind development projects to Terra-Gen ($325 million), and the sale of Babcock & Brown’s development subsidiary to Riverstone to become Pattern Energy.

Before joining Marathon Capital, Mr. Pribadi held senior positions in power plant design engineering, project management, and project finance with ABB Power Generation and Alstom Power. During his association with ABB and Alstom, Mr. Pribadi led a design engineering group within the Power Generation Division, followed by a stint as a manager of a product management team for a large combined-cycle gas power plant. Mr. Pribadi received his BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Washington and his MBA with concentrations in Finance, Accounting, and Entrepreneurship from the University of Chicago. Mr. Pribadi holds his Series 7 and 63 licenses.

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Cyrus ReedCyrus Reed
Conservation Director
Sierra Club

Improving Grid Resilience

Cyrus has a Ph.D. in Geography from the University of Texas at Austin, with a focus on water policy and the dispute over the Rio Grande water with Mexico. Prior to becoming conservation director, he served as Sierra Club’s lobbyist on energy and air quality issues during the 2005, 2007 legislative sessions, and directed the Texas Center for Policy Studies, an environmental policy and advocacy organization based in Austin, for five years. He is presently working on energy issues and their impacts. Cyrus has also worked as a journalist and has spent considerable time in Mexico, Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

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Joaquin Resasco
Assistant Professor
McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering, UT Austin

Hydrogen Generation and Distribution

Joaquin Resasco was born in Mar del Plata, Argentina. He completed his B.S. in Chemical Engineering at the University of Oklahoma, and his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley under the guidance of Professor Alexis Bell. His doctoral research focused on electrochemical CO2 reduction. Joaquin was a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara with Professor Phillip Christopher.

His postdoctoral work focused on developing relationships between the dynamic structure of atomically dispersed catalysts and their reactivity. As of January 2021, Joaquin is an Assistant Professor in the McKetta Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Joaquin was the recipient of the UC Berkeley Chancellor’s Fellowship and NSF GRFP. He was also selected to the Forbes 30 under 30 list in Science.

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Cassandra RinaldoCassandra Rinaldo
Chief Executive Officer
SolarProponent

Emergence of the Energy Innovation Ecosystem in Austin, Texas

Cassandra brings to her role as Chief Executive Officer of Solar Proponent LLC over 25 years of experience in energy infrastructure development, mergers & acquisitions, energy trading, risk management and structured finance. Most recently she was CFO of a utility-scale solar developer managing a 1.8 GW portfolio in a joint venture with a global bank.

Cassandra has extensive start-up experience including nine years establishing and managing North American gas & power trading commercial support operations for Repsol, S.A. Prior to that, she was Chief Risk Officer for a multi-state gas & electric utility where she coordinated investment analysis, chaired the Risk Committee and reported to the Board of Directors.

Previously, she was VP of Market Risk and also managed due diligence for billions of dollars of international energy infrastructure investments at several multinational energy companies. Earlier in her career Cassandra was an audit manager in the energy practice at Ernst & Young and earned her undergraduate degree in accounting from Texas A&M University in College Station.

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Caitlin SmithCaitlin Smith
Senior Director, Regulatory, External Affairs and ESG
Jupiter Power LLC

Improving Grid Resilience

Caitlin is an energy professional with over a decade of experience in regulatory policy. For the last nine years, she has focused on electricity market design and has worked both as an advocate for policies that have enhanced our electricity markets and as an advisor on the commercial and financial impacts of energy policy. Her broad experience in government and regulatory affairs, as well as in public affairs, have led Caitlin to becoming a well-versed speaker and author across topics ranging from clean energy to wholesale energy market design.

Caitlin is the Senior Director of Regulatory, External Affairs & ESG with Jupiter Power— a leading energy storage developer and operator. Caitlin’s work focuses on aligning market incentives, resiliency, and the energy transition. She recently founded Jupiter Power’s Women’s Professional Development Initiative. Caitlin has in-depth experience with the ERCOT market and was the first in-house counsel for the Independent Market Monitor to ERCOT and currently sits on ERCOT’s Technical Advisory Committee.

Caitlin holds a Bachelor of the Arts in Economics from the University of Texas, a Juris Doctor from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Laws in Environmental & Natural Resource Law and Policy from the University of Denver.

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Wen SongWen Song
Assistant Professor
Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, UT Austin
Critical Minerals Supply Chain: Addressing an Energy Transition Bottleneck

Wen Song is a George H. Fancher Assistant Professor of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research aims to enable the transition toward a low-carbon energy future by developing understanding of the multiphase reactive transport mechanisms that control energy and environmental processes in natural and engineered porous media. Specifically, she develops novel operando micro/nano visualization platforms that enable the in situ observation of fluid-fluid and fluid-solid interactions with spatial, temporal, and chemical resolution to elucidate the interfacial dynamics within porous materials. Energy resources that her group investigates include CO2, minerals, and gas hydrates. Wen joined the department in 2019, and obtained her Ph.D. in Energy Resources and Ph.D. minor in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University in 2019.

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Anna StukasAnna Stukas
Vice President of Business Development
Carbon Engineering

Carbon Removal Entering the Mainstream

Anna is a professional engineer with over 15 years’ experience bridging the gap between technology and business to overcome barriers to clean tech commercialization. Anna previously worked with Angstrom Power and BIC developing hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, where her responsibilities spanned IP and licensing strategy, product safety, and international regulatory development. She currently leads a variety of CE’s partnering and strategic business development efforts, and previously led CE initiatives ranging from strategic projects to government programs. Anna’s work has been recognized by the Minerva Foundation’s Women In™ Energy Award for Philanthropy and Business in Vancouver’s Forty Under 40 Award.

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Michael WebberMichael Webber
Josey Centennial Professor in Energy Resources
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Mechanical Engineering, UT Austin

Keynote Talk: Don’t Mess with Texas: Getting the Lone Star State to Net-zero by 2050

Dr. Michael E. Webber is the Josey Centennial Professor in Energy Resources at the University of Texas at Austin and CTO of Energy Impact Partners, a $2 billion cleantech venture fund. From September 2018 to August 2021, Webber was based in Paris, France where he served as the Chief Science and Technology Officer at ENGIE, a global energy & infrastructure services company. Webber’s expertise spans research and education at the convergence of engineering, policy, and commercialization on topics related to innovation, energy, and the environment. His book Power Trip: the Story of Energy was published in 2019 by Basic Books with an award-winning 6-part companion series that aired on PBS, Amazon Prime and iTunes starting Earth Day 2020. His prior book, Thirst for Power: Energy, Water and Human Survival, which addresses the connection between earth’s most valuable resources and offers a hopeful approach toward a sustainable future, was published in 2016 by Yale Press and was converted into an hourlong documentary. He was selected as a Fellow of ASME (the American Society of Mechanical Engineers) and as a member of the 4th class of the Presidential Leadership Scholars, which is a leadership training program organized by Presidents George W. Bush and William J. Clinton. Webber has authored more than 400 publications, holds 6 patents, and serves on the advisory board for Scientific American. A successful entrepreneur, Webber was one of three founders in 2015 for an educational technology startup, DISCO Learning Media, which was acquired in 2018. Webber holds a B.S. and B.A. from UT Austin, and M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University. He was honored as an American Fellow of the German Marshall Fund and an AT&T Industrial Ecology Fellow on four separate occasions by the University of Texas for exceptional teaching.

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Edward YuEdward Yu
Professor
Electrical and Computer Engineering, UT Austin

Hydrogen Generation and Distribution

Edward Yu is Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering and holds the Judson S. Swearingen Regents Chair in Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin.

In September 1992, following a one-year postdoctoral appointment at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY, he joined the faculty of the University of California, San Diego as Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 1996 and Professor in 1998. In 2009 he assumed his current position on the faculty of the University of Texas at Austin.

Professor Yu has been the recipient of an NSF CAREER Award (1995), an ONR Young Investigator Award (1995), an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship (1995), and the UCSD ECE Graduate Teaching Award (1997), and is an AVS Fellow. He has served on numerous conference organizing committees including General Chair (2005-07) and Program Chair (2003-05) of the TMS Electronic Materials Committee and Electronic Materials Conference, and Division Chair and Program Chair of the AVS Nanometer-Scale Science and Technology Division. He is an alumnus of the 2000-01 Defense Sciences Study Group (DSSG), and currently serves as a member of the DARPA Defense Sciences Research Council (DSRC).

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