New Frontiers for Geothermal Energy: From Hot Rocks to a Future Low-Carbon Grid
REGISTRATION is now OPEN. Click HERE to register.
Student Poster Session Information can be found HERE
CLICK HERE to DOWNLOAD the full PROGRAM
Join Rice University’s Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences Department in partnership with The Rice Sustainability Institute & The Baker Institute's Center for Energy Studies, THURSDAY AND FRIDAY April 9-10, 2026, James A. Baker Hall, Rice University.
Program themes:
- Realizing Enhanced Geothermal at Scale
- Volcanoes, Ultra-Hot Rocks, and Geothermal Beyond Earth
- Stuck in Hot Water: Geothermal Brines, Critical Minerals, and Waste Water Disposal
- Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Simulation Strategies for Subsurface Systems
- Geothermal and the Future US Energy System
Presentations from across Rice University and industry leaders.
Key Speakers
Lauren Boyd leads the efforts of the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Geothermal (OG) to improve performance, reduce costs, and accelerate deployment of geothermal technologies. In this role, Lauren is responsible for geothermal research, development, and demonstration and champions OG’s partnerships with industry, academia, the DOE national laboratories, and others to increase geothermal deployment and advance geothermal as an economically competitive and widely available part of the U.S. energy supply. Prior to becoming director, Lauren served as OG’s senior advisor, providing technical expertise and input on matters across the Office’s portfolio. She also spent more than a decade leading OG’s enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) program, where she was instrumental in spearheading and launching DOE’s flagship EGS research site, the Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE).
Jack Norbeck is co-founder and CTO at Fervo Energy, the leading next-generation geothermal developer. Fervo operates the longest-running enhanced geothermal system in Nevada and is actively building the world's largest enhanced geothermal project - a 500 MW project in Utah. Jack leads Fervo's exploration, production, and reservoir diagnostics activities. Fervo Energy has raised over $1.5 billion in funding and has executed over 600 MW of power purchase agreements with leading utilities and corporate offtakers such as Southern California Edison, Shell, and Google. Some of its most prominent investors include Breakthrough Energy Ventures, Capricorn Investment Group, Devon Energy, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Jack holds a PhD degree in energy resources engineering from Stanford University.
Sessions:
Thursday April 9th, 8:30am-5:00pm (talks), Posters from 5:00pm:
- Realizing EGS and Advanced Geothermal at Scale
- Volcanoes, Ultra-Hot Rocks, and Geothermal Out of this World:
- Stuck in Hot Water: Geothermal Brines, Critical Minerals, and Waste Water Disposal
Poster session from 5:00pm-6:20pm at Brochstein Pavilion (map to Brochstein Pavilion), Rice University
Friday April 10th, 8:30am-12:00pm (talks)- lunch served after the end of the meeting:
- Artificial Intelligence and Advanced Simulation Strategies: From Pore to Basin Scale
- Geothermal & Future Energy Systems
Session Speakers:
Invited Industry speakers from across the sector including Dr. Mike Eros (Sage), Dr. Trenton Cladouhos (Quaise), Dr. Will Stringfellow (LBNL), Dr. Rachel Morrison (Zanskar), and Dr. Koenraad Beckers (ResFrac). The symposium will end with a policy discussion including Mr. Barry Smitherman (TGEA).
Academic speakers include Prof. Alan Levander, Prof. Brandon Schmandt, Prof. Qilin Li, Prof. Sahar Bakhshian, Prof. Malcolm Ross, Prof. Abbas Firoozabadi, Prof. Cin-Ty Lee, Prof. Dan Cohan, Prof. Ken Medlock, and Prof. Jonathan Ajo-Franklin.
Program with abstracts can be viewed by clicking HERE.
Click HERE to download and distribute the flier below.
