The Rice Environmental Club will host the tenth annual Rice Environmental Conference on April 6, 2002 at the Ley Student Center at Rice University. This year's Conference will focus on the future of energy in a world where resources are dwindling and consumption is ever increasing. We will explore energy alternatives and the choices, costs, and benefits in energy deregulation, especially in Houston. Speakers and panelists will talk about many of these major alternative energy issues as well as what environmental activists and average citizens alike can do to make their energy consumption more environmentally friendly.

The conference is free and open to the general public. It is intended for concerned citizens, students, public officials, business leaders, researchers, and anyone interested in the environment. Walk ins are welcome. However, please pre-order for the free veggie lunch through the registration form. A tentative schedule is included below.

 

10:00 AM	Opening Remarks
10:15 AM	Morning Keynote Speaker "The Current State of Energy" Barbara Shook Houston Bureau Chief, Energy Intelligence Group
11:00 PM	Energy Deregulation Panel Discussion Tanwir Badar Deputy Assistant Director, Energy & Environmental Management Division, City of Houston Derek Benson Associate, Business Development, Reliant Energy, Inc. Renewables Group Gillan Taddune President of the Texas Region of the Green Mountain Energy Company Dr. Neal Lane, Moderator Rice University Professor, Senior Baker Institute Fellow, and former Assitant to the President for Science and Technology
12:00 PM	Free Vegetarian Lunch and Discussion Sessions and Exposition of Local Environmental Groups
1:15 PM	Student Environmental Paper Contest
1:45 PM	Alternative Energy Presentations and Discussion Panels Dr. Vaughn Nelson, Wind Energy Alternative Energy Institute, West Texas A & M Claude Foster, P.E., Solar Energy Chief Electrical Engineer Lockwood, Andrews, & Newnam Dr. Charles D. Holland, Biomass and Geothermal Energy President, Texas Institute for the Advancement of Chemical Technology Rick Gangluff, Nuclear Energy South Texas Project Ryan McMullan, Moderator Rice Alumnus and Rice University Recycling Coordinator
3:15 PM	The Potential of Fuel Cells George R. King Director, Energy Group Houston Advanced Research Center
4:00 PM	Afternoon Keynote Speaker "Building a More Sustainable Texas Through Energy Activism"
5:00 PM	Closing Remarks

 

About the Conference

For the past ten years, concerned Rice students have planned, organized, and run the Rice Environmental Conference. The goal of the Conference is to inform Houston citizens and Rice students about specific environmental issues and to raise awareness of the importance of protecting our environment. However, the Conference is more than an informative tool. It is a vehicle for generating excitement about the possibility of a sustainable planet, for bringing Rice students and the environmental community together, and for spreading the idea that every individual can really make a difference.

Since its inception by David Greene in 1992, the conference has remained entirely organized by Rice students. It features presentations by Rice students, community activists, researchers, and environmental professionals. It is heavily supported by Rice professors, programs and departments. We are very grateful for all of the support the Conference receives each year to make it bigger and better than the last.

The Conference has evolved each year and shows the influence of its many inspired participants. This started as a project to engage students in their own education, and environmental issues gave us a broad theme on which to base the conference. Environmental issues are not fading away but instead are demonstrating broader implications we are literally surrounded by them.
       ~ David Greene, Conference Founder

Conference History

About the Greene Prize
The purpose of the Greene Prize for Environmental Student Papers is to encourage original environmental work by undergraduate students at Rice. The contest is graciously endowed by the family of David Greene, who created the conference. Winning papers are presented at the Conference.

For more information contact the Conference Directors

George Wells

Shalene Jha

Lee Cagle

 

 

Directions to the Conference  The Conference will be held in the Ley Student Center.

Conference sponsors include Rice's President's Programming Fund and EESi  

---

  
Back to the Rice Environmental Club Page