Energy Policy Advisory Council Bios
Dr. Derek Adams
Dr. Derek Adams is the Managing Director of the Permian Integrated Energy System (PIES) at PEDL. He brings deep cross-sector experience in power generation, energy storage, renewable energy, oil and gas, and decarbonization technologies. Derek leads the development and execution of integrated energy projects at PEDL Lands, working across public, private, and research domains to advance innovation in the Permian Basin. His work focuses on translating complex energy challenges into actionable strategies by aligning technical design, stakeholder engagement, and commercial feasibility. Derek is committed to accelerating the deployment of next-generation technologies that will define the future of energy systems.
Beth Garza
Beth Garza is an independent consultant to the electric utility industry. As such, she represents residential ratepayer interests within the ERCOT stakeholder process. She is also a senior fellow with the Energy & Environmental Policy Team of the R Street Institute. Beth served as the director of the Independent Market Monitor for the ERCOT market from 2014 through 2019 after serving as the deputy director since 2008. Over the course of her 40-year career in the electric utility industry, Beth has held a variety of leadership roles in generation and transmission planning, system operations, regulatory affairs and market design for both regulated and competitive entities.
Dr. David E. Adelman
Dr. David Adelman joined the University of Texas law faculty in 2009. His research focuses on empirical studies of litigation, implementation of environmental laws, and the geographic and distributional impacts of environmental policies. Understanding the limits of science and quantitative reasoning in regulatory policymaking is a recurring theme in his work.
Dr. Ning Lin
Dr. Ning Lin is is the Chief Economist at the Bureau of Economic Geology at The University of Texas at Austin, with 15 years of commercial experience at Shell Trading, Koch Industries, and Tenaska. She specializes in market analytics and scenario modeling across gas, power, hydrogen, and industrial value chains. Recent work includes large-load energy and resource planning; hydrogen value-chain valuation from production to underground storage, and broad downstream market development in ag/bio-based markets.
Dr. Joshua D. Rhodes
Dr. Joshua D. Rhodes is a Research Scientist with the Webber Energy Group at UT Austin, a non-Resident Fellow at Columbia University, and a Founding partner & CTO of IdeaSmiths LLC. His current work is in the area of energy systems. He holds a double bachelors in Mathematics and Economics from Stephen F. Austin State University, a masters in Computational Mathematics from TAMU, and a Ph.D. in Civil Engineering from UT Austin.
Dr. Rusty Towell
Dr. Rusty Towell is the founding director of ACU’s Nuclear Energy eXperimental Testing (NEXT) Lab which is building the first university advanced reactor in the country. Rusty has a BS degree in Engineering Physics from ACU where he has been a professor for the past 25 years. He earned a Ph.D. in nuclear physics from The University of Texas. He served in the U.S. Navy as an instructor at the Naval Nuclear Power School and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship with Los Alamos National Laboratory working at Brookhaven National Lab. For the past 37 years, Rusty has worked at many different national labs on several international research projects. His over 500 publications have been cited more than 50,000 times.
Dr. Aparajita Datta
Dr. Aparajita Datta is is the Energy Policy Associate for the Division of Energy and Innovation at the University of Houston. Her work focuses on energy affordability and security, examining administrative burdens as a source of inequality in American institutions and policies. Her research also spans infrastructure resilience and reliability, low-carbon technology policy, public opinion and education for energy transition technologies and innovation, and workforce development. She formerly served as a Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and as a Fellow for Civically Engaged Research at the American Political Science Association. Aparajita holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India. She holds master’s degrees in energy management, public policy, and political science, and a PhD in Political Science from the University of Houston.
Olivier Beaufils
Olivier Beaufils is the Head of USA Central and Market Lead for ERCOT at Aurora Energy Research. In his role, he advises utilities, project developers, energy consumers, financial institutions and government agencies, on strategy engagements, M&A transactions, financings, public policy, and market analysis. He has over a decade of expertise in energy markets in North America, in particular in power, natural gas and LNG markets, as well as emerging energy technologies such as batteries, nuclear and hydrogen. Prior to joining Aurora Energy Research, Olivier worked at S&P Global and Wood Mackenzie in Houston. He holds Master’s degrees in Global Policy Studies from the University of Texas at Austin and in Electrical Engineering from CentraleSupélec, and in Energy and Markets from IFP School.
Dr. Margaret Cook
Dr. Margaret Cook is the Deputy Director - Climate Equity and Resilience at the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC). Her research focuses on the Energy-Water-Climate Nexus and partnering with communities to advance their energy, water, equity, and resilience goals. Dr. Cook's previous research focused on the effects of drought and heat waves on power plants and water recycling in the oil and gas industry. She has previously worked at the Texas Legislature, the U.S. Department of Energy, Apache Corporation, and Austin Energy.
Dr. Susan Hovorka
Dr. Sue Hovorka is a Senior Research Scientist at the Bureau of Economic Geology, Jackson School of Geosciences, at The University of Texas at Austin. She has conducted field studies and monitoring to document retention and low risk from geologic storage of CO2 since 1998. Her current research focuses on assessment of effectiveness of subsurface geologic sequestration of CO2 as a mechanism for reducing atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions. Hovorka is the principle investigator of the Gulf Coast Carbon Center, an industry/academic partnership working on economically viable approaches to geologic sequestration of CO2. She is the project lead for the " Early" test of the Southeast Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership (SECARB), which has monitored injection of 3 million tons of CO2 at Denbury's Cranfield Field. She has recently completed leading a research team in completion of the two-phase Frio Pilot, a first US field test of storage of CO2 in brine-filled sandstones also funded by DOE-NETL. Both of these projects have recently been recognized by the international Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum. She has a commitment to public and educational communication. She has a BA from Earlham College and a PhD in Geology from the University of Texas at Austin.