Kathleen Hartnett White is the Distinguished Senior Fellow in Residence and the Director of the Armstrong Center for Energy and the Environment (CEE) at the Texas Public Policy Foundation. Kathleen directs the CEE’s research and policy development on a range of issues including energy, climate change, air quality, water quality & water rights and waste. In August 2007, Kathleen White completed her six-year term as Chairman and Commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). With regulatory jurisdiction over air quality, water quality, water rights & water utilities and waste, TCEQ is the second largest environmental agency in the world after U.S. EPA. As the final state decision maker, she presided over complex and controversial permitting issues such as coal-fired power plants, ozone controls for Houston’s petrochemical complex, climate change, water right permits and radioactive waste disposal. Prior to Governor Rick Perry’s appointment of Kathleen Hartnett White to TCEQ in 2001, she served on the Texas Water Development Board, the Texas Economic Development Commission and the Environmental Flows Study Commission. Kathleen now is an officer and a director of the Lower Colorado River Authority - her fifth gubernatorial appointment. She has received the Texas Water Conservation Association’s President’s Award, the Colorado River Foundation’s Friend of the River Award and the Texas Chemical Council’s Leadership Award. Her writing has been published in the National Review, Investors’ Business Daily, Washington Examiner, Daily Caller, Weekly Standard and many state newspapers. A writer and consultant on environmental laws, natural resource policy, private property rights and ranching history, White received her bachelor cum laude and master degrees from Stanford University where she held the E. W. Lyman Academic Scholarship. Her many academic awards include a national Danforth National Fellowship for doctoral work at Princeton University, Princeton’s Jonathan Edwards Award for Academic Excellence, and a Lineberry Foundation Fellowship at Texas Tech University School of law. White is also a partner with her husband in a 125 year-old ranching operation in Jeff Davis and Presidio counties, Texas.

Air Quality, Water, Renewable Energy, Climate Change, Energy & The Environment, Electricity and Conventional Fuels.

Rattan Lal, Ph.D., is a Distinguished University Professor of Soil Science and Director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center, The Ohio State University, and an Adjunct Professor of University of Iceland. He received B.S. from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana; M.S. from IARI, New Delhi and Ph.D. from the Ohio State University. He served as Sr. Research Fellow with the University of Sydney, Australia (1968-69), Soil Physicist at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria (1970-87), and Professor of Soil Science at OSU (1987-to date). He has authored/co-authored 798 refereed journal articles and 436 book chapters, has written 19 and edited/co-edited 63 books. He is included in the Reuter Thompsons 2014 and 2015 list of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds, and among the most cited scientists.

Soil processes and greenhouse effects, Soil wetness and anaerobiosis, Sustainable management of soil and water resources, Restoration and rehabilitation of degraded soils including minelands, soil resilience, water quality, soil structure and compaction, Conservation tillage, Agroforestry, Tropical agriculture, Natural resources management with emphasis on food security and environmental quality, Agricultural development in the Third World.

Ambe J. Njoh is currently working as a professor of Environmental Science & Policy in University of South Florida, USA. He completed his Ph.D. in Planning Studies in the year 1990 from University of London, London, England. His research interest includes Comparative Urban & Regional Planning, Research Methods & Quantitative Analysis, Public Infrastructure & Services, Planning and Administration in Developing Countries

Comparative Urban & Regional Planning, Research Methods & Quantitative Analysis, Public Infrastructure & Services, Planning and Administration in Developing Countries

Giuseppe Gambolati graduated with honors in Mechanical Engineering at the Polytechnic of Turin. After a brief stint as assistant of Applied Mechanics, was hired by IBM Research Center in Venice therein completing a scientific career to senior researcher. There he developed, among many other activities, the first model of anthropogenic land subsidence in Venice (1973). In 1980 he became Professor of Numerical Methods in Engineering at the University of Padua. From 2003 to 2008 he was member of the board of CORILA (Consortium for Research on the Lagoon of Venice) and is currently member of the IAHS/UNESCO-IHP subsidence team. In 2008 he received the Excellent Contributions Award of IACMAG (International Association for Computers Methods and Advances in Geomechanics) for “significant contributions in research, academic activities and professional service in different regions of the globe ”. In 2011 he was elected Fellow of the American Geophysical Union for “his unique and seminal contributions to geomechanical aspects of subsurface fluid flow”.

Geoscience,Geology,Geography,GIS

Professor of Hydrogeology at the Faculty of Geosciences of Utrecht University and Senior Advisor with Soil and Groundwater Department of Deltares. Graduated with honors from the Department of Civil Engineering of Pahlavi University in Shiraz, Iran, in 1975. Earned M.E.in 1976 and Ph.D. in 1979 at the Department of Civil Engineering of Princeton University.

Fundamental theories of flow and transport in porous media -- averaging-thermodynamic methods Modeling flow and transport in complex porous media; fuel cells, brain tissues, etc Density-dependent flow and transport in porous media Modeling transport of micro-organisms in soil Modeling biodegradation and bioremediation processes Disposal of radioactive waste in geological formations -- geohydrological aspects Theories of watershed flow processes -- averaging-thermodynamic methods

As a professor of University of Chinese Academy Sciences, Yiwen Ju also serve as Program Leader of National Major Projects, vice-chairman of China Energy Society, Director of Professional Committee of Nanogeology, Geological Society of China. His main research fields include: Coal Geology, Coalbed Methane Geology, Structural Geology, Microstructure Deformation and Nanogeoscience et al. He has published 3 books, more than 150 papers and been awarded several national prizes.

● Energy Resource Geology (Include: Coal Geology, Coalbed Methane Geology, and Shale Gas Geology) ● Basin Tectonics and Evolution, Rock Rheology ● Coal deformation and reservoir physical property ● Micro-structure, Supermicro-structure, Structural Geochemistry

Farzam Javadpour holds a bachelor’s degree with distinction in petroleum engineering Abadan Institute of Technology and master’s and PhD degrees in chemical and petroleum engineering, respectively, from the University of Calgary. He has worked as reservoir engineer in industry and is currently working as a research scientist at the Jackson School of Geosciences (University of Texas at Austin), where he is leading research works on novel techniques of reserve and permeability estimations and liquid and gas flow modeling for shale gas system. Javadpour is also studying fundamentals of nanoparticle transport in porous media for EOR and reservoir-engineering applications. He teaches advanced-level courses on topics including shale-gas characterization and production and CO2 injection in geological systems at the University of Texas at Austin.

His research interest includes transport in porous media. Natural rocks are among the most fascinating and complicated porous systems. current research includes gas and liquid flow in unconventional shale reservoirs and the use of engineered nanoparticles for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) and reservoir characterization applications