On March 21, Boalt faculty and students participated in a major campus-wide energy symposium designed to showcase clean energy innovation being developed at Berkeley. Challenges, Opportunities, and the Role of UC Berkeley in Creating a Sustainable Energy Future brought together 150 of UC Berkeley’s leading researchers in energy technology, economics, and policy with the country’s premier “cleantech” investors, industry experts, business leaders, and entrepreneurs in the first of what is expected to be an annual event.
Cymie Payne ’97, associate director of Boalt’s California Center for Environmental Law & Policy and director of the Global Commons Project, moderated a panel on carbon regulation and the impact on innovation. Other panel discussions addressed environmental policy, energy storage, solar power, energy efficiency in construction, and the future of alternative fuels. The conference highlighted work by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Haas School of Business, and the Goldman School of Public Policy. Keynote speakers included UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau, a physicist by training, and Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.
Boalt students participated in a poster session to highlight graduate-level energy research. The posters were on display throughout the event, and the student with the best poster was awarded $1,000.
The symposium, held at the at the Martin Luther King, Jr., Student Union, was organized by the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative (BERC). BERC is an interdisciplinary, student-run organization with more than 190 members from UC Berkeley groups and schools, including Boalt Hall.