high honor

Houston professor receives prestigious energy economics award

Peter Hartley has accepted one of the highest honors of his career. Photo via Rice.edu

A Rice economist, Peter Hartley, received the most prestigious honor awarded by the United States Association for Energy Economics earlier this month.

Known as the Adelman-Frankel Award, the honor is granted to "an individual or organization for a unique and innovative contribution to the field of energy economics," according to a statement from Rice. It was presented to Hartley for his wide-ranging work in the energy economics field on November 7 at USAEE/International Association for Energy Economics North American Conference in Chicago.

The Rice Baker Institute’s Center of Energy Studies was granted the award as an organization in 2013. Last year, two professors from the University of California, Berkeley received the award.

“I’m honored to be included among the distinguished group of economists,” Hartley says in a statement.

Hartley has worked as an energy economist for 40 years. He is the George A. Peterkin Professor of Economics at Rice and is a Rice Scholar of Energy Economics at the Baker Institute. His work focused originally on electricity but has shifted to focus on natural gas, oil, coal, nuclear and renewable energy in recent years. He's also published work on more theoretical topics, including money, banking and business cycles.

Prior to coming to Rice, Hartley served as an assistant professor of economics at Princeton University. He is originally from Australia and holds a bachelors in mathematics and masters in economics from Australian National University. He received his PhD in economics from University of Chicago.

Also at the conference, Connor Colombe, a PhD graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin, received the Best Student Paper award, according to the USAEE's LinkedIn page. The winner was granted $1,000 and received feedback from energy economists at the conference.

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A View From HETI

Quantum Power Systems took home the top TEX-E prize at this year's Energy Venture Day pitch competition during CERAWeek. Photo via LinkedIn

Twelve teams from around the country, including several from Houston, took home top honors at this year's Energy Venture Day and Pitch Competition at CERAWeek.

The fast-paced event, held March 25, put on by Rice Alliance, Houston Energy Transition Initiative and TEX-E, invited 36 industry startups and five Texas-based student teams focused on driving efficiency and advancements in the energy transition to present 3.5-minute pitches before investors and industry partners during CERAWeek's Agora program.

The competition is a qualifying event for the Startup World Cup, where teams compete for a $1 million investment prize.

PolyJoule won in the Track C competition and was named the overall winner of the pitch event. The Boston-based company will go on to compete in the Startup World Cup held this fall in San Francisco.

PolyJoule was spun out of MIT and is developing conductive polymer battery technology for energy storage.

Rice University's Resonant Thermal Systems won the second-place prize and $15,000 in the student track, known as TEX-E. The team's STREED solution converts high-salinity water into fresh water while recovering valuable minerals.

Teams from the University of Texas won first and second place in the TEX-E competition, bringing home $25,000 and $10,000, respectively. The student winners were:

Companies that pitched in the three industry tracts competed for non-monetary awards. Here are the companies named "most-promising" by the judges:

Track A | Industrial Efficiency & Decarbonization

Track B | Advanced Manufacturing, Materials, & Other Advanced Technologies

  • First: Licube, based in Houston
  • Second: ZettaJoule, based in Houston and Maryland
  • Third: Oleo

Track C | Innovations for Traditional Energy, Electricity, & the Grid

The teams at this year's Energy Venture Day have collectively raised $707 million in funding, according to Rice. They represent six countries and 12 states. See the full list of companies and investor groups that participated here.

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