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Michael E. Webber

Michael Webber is the Associate Director of the Center for International Energy and Environmental Policy Co-Director of the Clean Energy Incubator at the Austin Technology Incubator, and Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, where he trains a new generation of energy leaders through research and education at the intersection of engineering, policy, and commercialization. He has authored more than 150 scientific articles, columns, books and book chapters, including a compendium of his commentary titled Changing the Way America Thinks About Energy, which was published in May 2009.

Work History

A highly sought public speaker, he has given more than 175 lectures, speeches, and invited talks in the last few years, including testimony for hearings of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, keynotes for scientific conferences, lectures at the United Nations, and briefings for executives at some of the nation's leading companies. Michael is on the board of advisors for Scientific American, holds four patents, and is one of the originators of the Pecan Street Project, which is a $30 million public-private partnership for smart grid innovation and deployment.

Prior to joining The University of Texas at Austin, Michael studied issues relevant to energy, innovation, manufacturing, and national security at the RAND Corporation. Previously, he was a Senior Scientist at Pranalytica, where he invented sensors for Homeland Security, industrial analysis, and environmental monitoring.

Education

Michael's education includes a B.A. with High Honors (Plan II Liberal Arts) and B.S. with High Honors (Aerospace Engineering) from The University of Texas at Austin, and an M.S. (Mechanical Engineering) and Ph.D. (Mechanical Engineering, Minor in Electrical Engineering) from Stanford University, where he was a National Science Foundation Fellow from 1995-1998.

Honors, Awards and Publications

In 2005, Michael was recognized by the College of Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin as an Outstanding Young Engineering Graduate, and in 2006 was honored as the Commencement Speaker for the spring graduation ceremony. Michael was selected as an American Memorial Marshall Fellow of the German Marshall Fund for 2007, White House Fellowship finalist in 2009, an AT&T Industrial Ecology Fellow in 2009, and an Aspen Institute Environmental Forum Scholar in 2010. An award-winning teacher, Webber was selected for a Dad's Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship at The University of Texas at Austin for 2010-2011 and a Regent's Outstanding Teaching Award by The University of Texas System for 2011-2012.

From 2004 to 2006 he was a board member for the Hope Street Group, which is a non-profit bipartisan national organization for young professionals interested in promoting policies that expand opportunity and economic growth. Webber's expertise, opinions and research have been published, cited or featured in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, USA Today, NPR (Science Friday), PBS (weekly newsmagazine NOW), The Daily Telegraph, BBC, ABC, CBS, Discovery, Scientific American, Popular Mechanics, New Scientist, MSNBC, History Channel, Nature Geoscience, Earth Magazine, Solar Today, Texas Monthly, Austin American-Statesman, Dallas Morning News, San Antonio Express-News, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Houston Chronicle and many other prominent media outlets.

Michael lives in Austin, Texas with his wife and three children.

Selected Publications

  1. C.W. King and M.E. Webber, "The Water Intensity of Transportation", Journal of Environmental Science and Technology, Vol. 42, (2008), 21, pp. 7866-7872
  2. A.S. Stillwell, M.E. Clayton and M.E. Webber, "Technical analysis of a river basin-based model of advanced power plant cooling technologies for mitigating water management challenges", Environmental Research Letters, (2011), pp. 1-11
  3. C.M. Beal, C.H. Smith, M.E. Webber, R.S. Ruoff and R.E. Hebner, "A Framework to Report the Production of Renewable Diesel From Algae", Bioenergy Research, Vol. 4, (2010), 1, pp. 36-61
  4. T.M. Thompson, C.W. King, M.E. Webber, and D.T. Allen, "Air Quality Impacts of Using Overnight Electricity Generation to Charge PHEVs in the Texas grid", Environmental Research Letters , Vol. 6 , (2011), 024004, pp. 1-11
  5. A.D. Cuellar and M.E. Webber, "“Wasted Food, Wasted Energy: The Embedded Energy in Food Waste in the United States”", Environmental Science and Technology, (2010), July 21, 2010

Most Recent Publications

  1. T.M. Thompson, C.W. King, M.E. Webber, and D.T. Allen, "Air Quality Impacts of Using Overnight Electricity Generation to Charge PHEVs in the Texas grid," Environmental Research Letters , Vol. 6 , (2011), 024004, pp. 1-11
  2. Stillwell, A. S., C. W. King, M. E. Webber, I. J. Duncan and A. Hardberger, "The Energy-Water Nexus in Texas," Ecology And Society (Special Feature: The Energy-Water Nexus: Managing The Links Between Energy And Water For A Sustainable Future) , Vol. 16, (2011), 1, pp. 1-20
  3. S.M. Cohen, H.L. Chalmers, M.E. Webber and C.W. King, "Comparing post-combustion CO2 capture operation at retrofitted coal-fired power plants in the Texas and Great Britain electric grids," Environmental Research Letters , Vol. 6 , (2011), 024001 , pp. 1-14
  4. S. M. Cohen, M. E. Webber and G. T. Rochelle, "Utilizing Solar Thermal Energy for Post-Combustion CO2 Capture," Journal Of Energy And Power Engineering , (2011), pp. 1-14
  5. J.D. Rhodes, B. Stephens and M.E. Webber, "Using a database of energy audits to investigate the impacts of common air-conditioning design and installation issues on peak power and energy consumption in Austin, Texas," Energy And Buildings, (2011), pp. 1-10
  6. J.B. Garrison, M.E. Webber, "An Integrated Energy Storage Scheme for a Dispatchable Solar and Wind Powered Energy System," Journal Of Renewable And Sustainable Energy, (2011), pp. 1-12
  7. C.M. Beal, R.E. Hebner, M.E. Webber, R.S. Ruoff, and F. Seibert, "The Energy Return on Investment for Algal Biocrude: Results for a Research Production Facility," Bioenergy Research , (2011), pp. 1-22
  8. C.B. Harris, J.P. Meyers, and M.E. Webber, "A unit commitment study of the application of energy storage toward improving economic dispatch," Journal Of Renewable And Sustainable Energy, (2011), pp. 1-10
  9. A.S. Stillwell, M.E. Clayton and M.E. Webber, "Technical analysis of a river basin-based model of advanced power plant cooling technologies for mitigating water management challenges," Environmental Research Letters, (2011), pp. 1-11
  10. D.M. Wogan, M.E. Webber and A.K. da Silva, "A Framework and Methodology for Reporting Geographically- and Temporally-Resolved Solar Data: A Case Study of Texas," Journal Of Renewable And Sustainable Energy , (2010), pp. 1-22