Advisory Council
![]() |
Sally M. Benson Director of Global Climate and Energy Project and Research Professor of Energy Resources Engineering, Stanford University, | Benson works on carbon dioxide capture and sequestration in deep underground geological formations. A ground water hydrologist and reservoir engineer, Benson has conducted research to address a range of issues related to energy and the environment. For the past ten years she has studied how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by capturing carbon dioxide from power plants and pumping it into deep underground formations for permanent sequestration. |
![]() |
Dallas Burtraw Senior Fellow, Resources for the Future | Dallas Burtraw's research interests include the design of environmental regulation, the costs and benefits of environmental regulation, and the regulation and restructuring of the electricity industry. |
![]() |
David G. Hawkins Director of Climate Programs, Natural Resources Defense Council |
David G. Hawkins began his work in "public interest" law upon graduation from Columbia University Law School in 1970. He joined the Natural Resources Defense Council's Washington, DC office in 1971 as one of the organization's first staff members. In 1977, Hawkins was appointed by President Carter to be Assistant Administrator for Air, Noise, and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency. |
![]() |
David Keith Canada Research Chair in Energy and the Environment, University of Calgary |
Professor Keith has worked near the interface between climate science, energy technology and public policy for twenty years. His work in technology and policy assessment has centered on the capture and storage of CO2, the technology and implications of global climate engineering, the economics and climatic impacts of large-scale wind power and the prospects for hydrogen fuel. |
![]() |
Michael A. Levi David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment, Council on Foreign Relations |
Michael Levi is the David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment at the Council on Foreign Relations and is director of its Program on Energy Security and Climate Change. His research focuses primarily on policy design for climate change mitigation and for U.S. energy security, with a strong emphasis on U.S. foreign policy. |
![]() |
Stephen P. Long Edward William and Jane Marr Gutgsell Endowed Professor of Plant Biology and Crop Sciences, University of Illinois, Deputy Director of the Energy Biosciences Institute, Founding and Chief Editor of Global Change Biology |
Stephen Long's research interests includes maximizing photosynthetic efficiency in food and second-generation bioenergy crops, adaptation to global atmospheric change and Miscanthus as a low-input high yielding bioenergy feedstock. |
![]() |
Franklin M. Orr, Jr. Keleen & Carlton Beal Professor of Petroleum Engineering, Energy Resources Engineering Department, Director, Precourt Institute for Energy, Stanford University |
Franklin Orr's research interests include geologic storage of CO2, enhanced oil recovery by gas injection processes, mathematics of multiphase, multicomponent flow with equilibrium phase behavior, and thermodynamics of phase behavior. |
![]() |
Chris Somerville Director, Energy Biosciences Institute |
As Director of the Energy Biosciences Institute, Dr. Somerville oversees all academic activities at the Institute, including research, communications, education and outreach. Somerville is the Philomathia Professor in Alternative Energy in the Department of Plant and Microbial Biology at the University of California, Berkeley. |











