Climate Change | Impact | Industry | Innovation 

Some key takeaways 

How Climate Change is affecting Commerce and Generation
How Companies need to address Climate Change Risk through tools to analyze their exposure at the portfolio and asset level.

Dr. Gavin Dillingham | Director | Clean Energy Policy | Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC).

Dr. Gavin Dillingham is CEO of Pythias Analytics. He joined HARC in 2012 where he leads multi-stakeholder efforts focusing on policy and programs to improve the climate resilience of power infrastructure and built environment and to help usher in the energy transition via a variety of clean energy initiatives.

Dr. Dillingham also leads efforts to commercialize HARC’s research. With the HARC team, University of Houston, and Lehigh University, he led the start-up of Pythias Analytics, Inc. Pythias Analytics is an early-stage startup, spun out of HARC in 2020. The company brings together climate and decision science to provide climate analytics, scenario planning, and decision optimization. Pythias works with the energy sector to help them to Be Climate Ready. 

Dr. Dillingham received a Bachelor’s degree from Texas Tech University and his PhD from Rice University in 2008. He holds the Climate Change Professional (CCP) certification from the Association of Climate Change Officers (ACCO) and the Sustainability Associate (SA) from the Institute for Sustainable Professionals.

Germán Ibáñez | President | Ibanez Consulting LLC 

Germán Ibáñez is the President in his consulting firm, Ibanez Consulting LLC.  The consulting practice focuses on energy – power generation, retail pricing – consulting, legislative and governmental affairs – electricity, sustainability and environmental issues, and risk management – auditing.  Before starting the consulting firm, German had a long career developing power plants using fuels like natural gas, coal, nuclear, biomass, wind, and solar for independent power producers and generation equipment companies.  

German has worked for companies like ENGIE, NRG Energy, Coastal/El Paso, Westinghouse, Rolls-Royce, and Enron.   German has an MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management, and BBA from the University of Texas at Austin.  Sustainability Energy Certificate from Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  Passed the Certified Energy Manager Exam and the Certified Internal Auditor Exam.  He has been a FENG Member since 2000 and is on the Resume Review Committee. 

Dr. Lu Liu |  Professor | Civil Construction & Environmental Engineering | Iowa State University

Dr. Lu is passionate about human system adaptations to global environmental change. Much of her work focused on developing integrated modeling of the interconnected water-energy-climate systems as an approach to understand the interactions and tradeoffs within systems and facilitate strategic planning of the water and energy systems.

Prior to her PhD, she worked as a researcher at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, where she enhanced water system representation within the state-of-the-art integrated assessment model. Lu’s research integrates methods from water resources engineering, systems analysis, climate science, and integrated assessment to inform decision-making around critical environmental challenges. Her research has appeared on high-impact journals such as Nature Energy and Nature Sustainability.

Dr. Lu Liu recently joined the Civil, Construction, and Environmental Engineering Department at Iowa State University as an Assistant Professor. She received her Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2017. Her primary research interests include water-energy-climate nexus, integrated human-natural system modeling, and urban water sustainability.

Dr. Michael Sheidaei | CEO of WignitE | www.w-ignite.com 

Michael works on commercial-scale clean energy projects, clean power and focuses on renewables and waste-to-energy projects domestically and internationally. The projects are focused on mitigating Green House Gases and curbing the impact of climate change and its impacts on energy resiliency and availability.

WignitE is the process of cleaning the earth and oceans from waste after recycling. The company has a 20 years history in research and development and recently has joined forces with global players to deliver clean and emission-free electricity and biofuels to underdeveloped countries where the impact of climate change is considered harsher and more complex.

Michael is a mechanical and chemical engineering undergrad and chemical and petroleum engineering graduate. He graduated with a Ph.D. from the University of Alberta in 2009. He is a Professional Engineer in the State of Texas and the Province of Saskatchewan.