ASPO 9 conference programme

ASPO Conference - Day 1 - Wednesday 27 April 2011

ASPO Conference - Day 2 - Thursday 28 April 2011

ASPO Conference - Day 3 - Friday 29 April 2011

Speaker Biographies

The Programme of the extra events can be found here:

Walloon Parliament Meeting - Tuesday 26 April 2011

European Parliament Meeting - Tuesday 3 May 2011

Day 1 - Wednesday 27 April 2011

Day 2 - Thursday 28 April 2011

Day 3 - Friday 29 April

Speaker Biographies

Prof. Dr. Kjell Aleklett, ASPO President

Kjell Aleklett is Professor of Physics at Uppsala University, Sweden, and leader of Global Energy Systems research and the Uppsala Hydrocarbon Depletion Study Group. He holds a doctorate degree from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and worked as a post-doctoral staff scientist, 1977-85, at the Natural Science Laboratory at Studsvik, Sweden. In 1986 he was appointed as associated professor at Uppsala University and later as full professor. In 1978-79 and again in 1983, he was invited to work with Nobel Prize winner Glenn T. Seaborg, Lawrence Berkley Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA. His interest in the global energy situation started in 1995 and has since then grown dramatically. In May 2002, he organized the First International Workshop on Oil Depletion at Uppsala University. Since 2003, he is president for ASPO, the Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas.

Dr. Roger Bentley, Reading University

Dr. Roger Bentley is a Visiting Research Fellow at the Department of Cybernetics, The University of Reading, UK. He has a BSc in Joint Physics & Chemistry from the University of Manchester, an MASc in Industrial Engineering from Toronto University, and a PhD from the Dept. of Engineering, University of Reading. Dr. Bentley has been studying peak oil since 1994 and has published a number of papers on the topic. He was the first Co-ordinator of the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre (ODAC), and is a past Secretary of ASPO.

Darren Bezdek, Management Information Services

Darren Bezdek has 15 years experience in private industry in energy, environmental and regulatory areas, Information Technology, and statistics.  He is currently serving as the Director of Energy Studies at Management Information Services Inc. (MISI) -- a Washington, D.C.-based economic and energy research firm.  His responsibilities at MISI include assessment of energy resources, peak oil analyses, and post-peak contingency planning and forecasting.  His clients include the Federal and state and local governments, Fortune 500 corporations, nonprofit foundations, and research institutes.   He has a BS in Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University.

Dr. Mert Bilgin, Bahcesehir University

Mert Bilgin received his first Ph.D. in political science from Middle East Technical University in Ankara; and his second Ph.D. in socio-economy of development from Centre d'Études des Modes d'Industrialisation of L’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He is an Associate Professor of International relations at Turkish Bahcesehir University where he teaches courses on politics of oil and energy, international political economy, Russia and Eurasia; and extensively publishes on political economy and energy issues. He is the author of three books and numerous articles that appeared in the most leading peer reviewed journals such as Energy Policy, International Journal of Global Energy Issues,  Futures,  Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of International Relations.

Dr. Derk Bol, Program Manager at the Materials Innovation Institute M2i, where he is responsible for the material research projects which are being carried out for Philips, ASML, FEI, Bekaert and other industrial partners of M2i. Derk Bol is member of the Platform Material Scarcity in the Netherlands and in this role advises the Dutch government and other organizations on material scarcity. He is co-author of the M2i study Materials Scarcity. Before joining M2i, Derk Bol has gained extensive experience in industry, as systems engineer for space satellite projects at Fokker Space, and as product development consultant for ADSE, an engineering and consultancy firm active in Europe in the aerospace and rail sector. Derk Bol has obtained a PhD degree in Physics at the University of Leiden on macroscopic quantum effects at low temperatures.

Dr. Erik Delarue, Research Foundation Flanders (FWO)

Erik Delarue received the M.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering in 2005 and the Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering in 2009, both from the University of Leuven (K.U.Leuven), Belgium. In 2010, he was a team member of the project THINK at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, advising the European Commission on energy technology policy. Dr. Delarue is currently a research fellow of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO), at the K.U.Leuven, with a main research focus on the modeling of electricity generation systems.

Ir. Jean-Marie Bourdaire, advisor of Cheniere Energy

Jean-Marie is a civil engineer of Paris School of Mines (promotion 1965). He joined TOTAL in 1970 after his military service in Cavalry and held successive positions as Research Engineer in Geophysics (1970-71), Geophysicist in Total Indonesia, Jakarta (1972-76), Senior Operational Researcher (1976-81), R&D Coordinator for Exploration (1981-84), Director of Operational Research (1984-87), and Director of Economic Studies (corporate) (1987-95). In 1995, he joined the International Energy Agency in Paris as Director, Long-Term Cooperation and Policy Analysis , heading four divisions (1995-99). After 1999, he became an international consultant mostly working with the World Energy Council (WEC 1999-2005) as Director of Studies. Since 1999, Jean-Marie is the advisor of Charif Souki, Chairman of Cheniere Energy. He is the author of several papers and the book “Economic Decision Making” , published in French (1985).

Dr. Yvonne Deng is a consultant with Ecofys, a leading energy and climate strategy consultancy, headquartered in The Netherlands. She specialises in modelling and for the last three years has primarily worked on global and European energy strategy projects, spanning all aspects of the energy system, from demand to supply. Other projects have included a global biomass resource assessment and a major GHG emissions abatement assessment for the European Commission. Before joining Ecofys, Yvonne worked for a global management consultancy in the UK and France, advising companies on their business operation strategies. She has worked on several continents and for many client organisations, ranging from large multinationals to small start-ups. Originally from Germany, Yvonne holds masters and doctorate degrees in Physics from the University of Cambridge, UK.

Prof. Dr. Yulong Ding, University of Leeds

Professor Yulong Ding is a professor of chemical engineering with the School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering at the University of Leeds. He was first trained as a thermophysicist / thermal engineer (BEng 1985, MSc 1988) and then a chemical engineer (PhD 1997). His research has been cross-disciplinary, particularly at interfaces among energy engineering, mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, materials engineering and, to a smaller extent, chemistry and bioengineering. He has filed 12 patents and published over 300 technical papers and 10 books / book chapters. His current research interests cover both fundamental and applied aspects, with the fundamental research focusing on multiphase transport phenomena across the length scales, and the applied research concentrating on new energy storage technologies, novel thermodynamic cycles and nanostructured materials for energy harvesting and storage applications.

Alex Evans, New York University, is currently a Non-Resident Fellow at NYU’s Center on International Cooperation, where he runs CIC’s work on multilateral cooperation on resource scarcity and climate change. He is the author of Globalisation and Scarcity (NYU, 2010) and The Feeding of the Nine Billion (Chatham House, 2009), and of a range of other publications (see http://is.gd/gN2xS3 for full list). His recent projects include work on resource scarcity with the World Bank, UN Secretary-General’s office, American and British governments, and NGOs including Oxfam and ActionAid. Prior to joining CIC in 2006, Alex was Special Adviser to Hilary Benn MP, then UK Secretary of State for International Development. He is married and lives in London.

Dr. Tiziano Gomiero, University of Padova,

holds a M.Sc. in Nature Science from the University of Padova, Italy (1993), and a Ph.D. Environmental Science from the  the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain (2005). He  worked in number of international projects (for which he spent a couple of years within China and Vietnam for the filed work) concerning rural development, and focusing on multicriteria farming system analysis.  He has been working since 2005 as contracted researcher at the Dept. of Biology,  University of Padova, where he serves also as contracted  professor of “Agroecology and Human Ecology”. His interests concern farming system analysis, organic agriculture, agroenergy, human ecology, where he tries to use a multidimensional approach to problem analysis.

Leena Grandell, Independent Energy Analyst

Leena Grandell holds an MSc (Engineering) in Technical Physics from the Helsinki University of Technology in Helsinki, Finland. She worked previously as a Project Manager for Motiva (Helsinki) focusing on energy evaluation methodologies, energy indicators and projects on solar and wind energy. Currently Leena Grandell works as an independent researcher in collaboration with Uppsala University and State University of New York. Her research interests cover the Energy Return on Investment (EROI) perspective, concentrating on fossil fuels.

Paul Hohnen, Sustainability Strategies

Amsterdam-based Paul Hohnen is an international expert on sustainable development. In a 35 year career, Paul has worked as a diplomat, political director of Greenpeace International, Strategic Director of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and since 2004 as an independent consultant to business, governments and United Nations bodies on sustainability issues. Paul has been closely associated with the development and use of many of the leading global sustainability standards and is currently advising the UN Environment Programme in its Green Economy preparations for the 2012 UN Conference on Sustainable Development. Paul has chaired a wide range of international meetings on environmental and energy issues, including for UN organisations, the EU, Chatham House (of which he is an Associate Fellow), the IEA, and the Club of Rome. For more information, see www.hohnen.net

Dr. James Henderson, Lambert Energy Advisory

James Henderson is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies as well as being Head of Russia for Lambert Energy Advisory, a Strategic Energy Advisory and M&A firm in London.  Dr. Henderson has been working in or analyzing the oil and gas industry for more than 20 years, 15 of which have been spent covering Russia and the CIS. He spent 5 years living and working in Moscow as Head of Research at Renaissance Capital before returning to the UK to begin a PhD at London University in 2003. His thesis was completed in 2010, when Dr. Henderson also published a book entitled “Non-Gazprom Gas Supply in Russia” for the OIES. His current research includes analysis of the oil potential of East Siberia and the Far East of Russia.

Dr. Jørgen Henningsen, senior consultant European Policy Centre has almost 20 years of experience working in the European Commission, first as the Director of DG Environment and from 2001 as the Principal Advisor of DG Energy and Transport. He was head of the Commission’s negotiations on the UN Climate Convention and the subsequent Kyoto Protocol.  He retired from the European Commission in 2006 and currently acts as a senior consultant for the European Policy Centre think tank.  He was assistant/associate professor at the Department of Chemical Engineering (DTU - Technical University of Denmark) before he moved to the Ministry of the Environment, first as Head of Division responsible for planning and development, and from 1976 as Deputy Director General of the Environmental Protection Agency. From 1980 to 1983, Mr Henningsen was responsible for the oil trade activities of Danish Oil & Natural Gas (DONG A/S). He was a member of the Danish Natural Science Research Council (1973-77), the first board of Risø (the National Laboratory for Sustainable Energy (1976-80)), and had two one-year sabbaticals at Stanford University (1971-72) and Harvard (2004-2005).

Ir. Philippe Henry, Minister for Environment, Spatial Planning and Mobility. Philippe Henry has been in office as the Walloon Minister for Environment, Spatial Planning and Mobility since July 16, 2009. His election as Chairman of the Federation of French-speaking Students in the 1990s led him to directly negotiate with Ministers and hold press conferences, following which he extended his commitment to politics as a member of the green party. By 1999, this commitment had earned him seats in the Walloon and the French-speaking Community Parliaments in Belgium, where he went on to become Vice-President of the Assembly. This first term gave him the political know-how which encouraged Jean-Michel Javaux, co-chair of Ecolo, to ask him to assume party leadership, an important factor in Ecolo’s gains in 2007. These gains eventually helped Philippe Henry to become a Member of the Federal Parliament, a position in which he dealt diligently with climate, economic and research matters until he took on his current responsibilities in the Walloon Government.

Dr. Wes Jackson, President of The Land Institute

Wes Jackson holds a B.A. in Biology, an M.A. in botany and a Ph.D. in genetics. He is President of The Land Institute, which he founded in 1976. His extensive writings include both papers and books. His most recent work, Consulting the Genius of the Place: An Ecological Approach to a New Agriculture, was published by Counterpoint Press in 2010.New Roots for Agriculture, 1980, outlines the basis for the agricultural research at The Land Institute. The work of The Land Institute has been featured extensively in popular media includingThe Atlantic Monthly, Audubon, National Geographic, and Time Magazine. In the November 2005 issue, Smithsonian named him one of “35 Who Made a Difference.” Wes Jackson is a recipient of the Pew Conservation Scholars award (1990), a MacArthur Fellowship (1992) and the Right Livelihood Award (Stockholm) (2000). He has received four honorary doctorates and in 2007 received the University of Kansas Distinguished Service Award.

Kristofer Jakobsson, PhD. Uppsala University

Kristofer Jakobsson is doing research as a doctoral candidate at the Department of Physics & Astronomy (Global Energy Systems group), Uppsala University, Sweden. His research specialization is energy scenarios and modeling, particularly of petroleum exploration, development and extraction. The focus is on computational models of the petroleum supply chain involving both physical and economical parameters. One active research topic is so-called agent-based models (ABM) and their suitability for energy scenarios. The idea of ABM is to model complex systems, such as industrial supply chains, as networks of agents that are autonomous, goal-oriented and adaptive. Kristofer holds a Licentiate degree in engineering science and a Master of Science degree in socio-technical systems engineering from Uppsala University, Sweden.

Ir. Alban Kitous, Senior Consultant, Head of Forecasting Studies Energydata, is a senior energy analyst and modelling expert. He has been working since 2001 first at CNRS (French national research centre) then at ENERDATA on energy economics studies for institutional bodies and large companies. He has been involved in and managed several projects including ADAM (Adaptation and Mitigation), World Energy Technology Outlook (WETO-H2), GRP (Greenhouse gases Reduction Pathways), Energy markets prospective and company strategies on future energy systems, carbon policies assessments, technological development and energy resources availability. He coordinates the development and use of the world energy model POLES and is a contributor to Enerdata’s regular energy market reports. His work covers all World regions, including large non-OECD countries and O&G producers. He is an Engineer and received the MSc degree on Environmental Technology at Imperial College (ICCET), London, in 2000.

Dr. Michael Krail, Fraunhofer ISI

Michael Krail worked as a research fellow at the Institute for Economic Policy Research (IWW) of the Universität Karlsruhe (TH) since 2003. Since summer 2009 he is working as a researcher at Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI). His research work covers sustainability impact assessment of European transport, economic and climate policies and technological scenarios. For this purpose he developed the System Dynamics models ASTRA and INSURE in cooperation with Trasporti i Territorio (TRT). In his dissertation thesis he analysed the impacts of income distribution on mobility behaviour and integrated a socioeconomic module in the ASTRA model. Besides the work on ASTRA he developed a flexible System Dynamics model (INSURE) to measure sustainability in regions of the EU. Michael Krail contributed as a researcher to several EU projects like TIPMAC, LOTSE, TRIAS, TRANS-TOOLS, INSURE, iTREN-2030 and GHG-TransPoRD (5th to 7th Framework Programme).”

Ir. Philippe Lamberts, European Green Party

Philippe Lamberts was trained as engineer in applied mathematics at the Catholic University of Louvain. He followed a commercial career for 20 years at IBM, whilst being involved in politics with the Greens. He served for Ecolo (Belgian Green Party) both as a local council member from 1991 to 2003 and as advisor to the cabinet of Isabelle Durant from 1999 to 2003. He has been very active in the European Green Party for over 12 years, starting with his membership of the executive committee of the European Federation of Green Parties in 2002. Since 2006  to today he has been co-President of the European Green Party. In the European Parliament he is serving his first term from 2009 to 2014 as a member of the Greens/EFA Group. As Member of the European Parliament, he focuses on economic questions (fiscal and governance issues in particular), as well as on industrial, research and innovation matters.

Ir. Niels van Loon, TNO Industrial Innovation, Solar

Niels van Loon has an education in Mechanical Engineering and Business Administration and is trained as a Six Sigma Black Belt. He worked over 7 years as a R&D engineer in the field of optical media. Here he was involved by the development of efficient production processes for the current standards in optical media. As a process senior, Niels van Loon developed at TNO a mathematical model for cost of ownership of production techniques for different thin film solar principles. Using the broad knowledge of production processes within TNO, Holst Centre and many of its partners, this model gives a highly detailed overview of production data, including material consumption related to production volume.

Prof. Dr. Henrik Lund, Aalborg University

Henrik Lund is professor in Energy Planning at Aalborg University in Denmark and Editor-in-Chief of Elsevier international jounal ENERGY. He holds a PhD in "Implementation of sustainable energy systems" (1990) and a senior doctoral degree in "Choice Awareness and Renewable Energy Systems" (2009). For more than 25 years Henrik Lund has taken an active role in Danish Energy Planning and Policiy making in political dicussion on specific investment decisions as well as in the technical design of concrete future energy alternatives. The latter has included the development of theories, metthodologies and tools for the technical design of renewable energy systems. Henrik Lund is the author of the new book "Renewable Energy Systems  -  The Choice and Modeling of 100% Renewable Solutions" being publish by Academic Press/Elsevier in October/November 2009.

Marc Mostade, Technical Director, Clean Coal Ltd, has over 20 years experience in Underground Coal Gasification, ranging from fundamental research to managing UCG pilot plants. He currently heads the technical team at CCL and oversees all project management and production & technical management of UCG projects, including engineering, quality management, environmental management, safety management, deep coal engineering, characterisation of underground reservoirs, managing gases at high pressure, chemistry and physics of energy processes and process control. Recently, Marc has produced detailed cost calculations of CRIP module-based UCG (applicable to pre-commercial & commercial phases), completed the basic design of CRIP module-based UCG (6 project cases studied) including mass & energy balances and equipment specifications and been involved in the pre-selection of 6 projects from around the world. He also serves as a technical advisor on the Advisory Council ofthe UCG Association, the professional industry body for the global UCG community.

Dr. Ir Jean-Marie Masset, Former TOTAL Senior VP Geoscience

Jean-Marie Masset graduated in 1971 from Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Geologie (Nancy, France)  and in 1973 from Université Henri Poincaré (Nancy) as a Docteur-Ingénieur. He started his career  in a research Laboratory of the french National Research Institute (CNRS) in Nancy. Jean-Marie was recruted by ELF in 1976 as an oil and gas exploration geologist where he took different assignment in ELF affiliates including Norway, the United States, and as exploration manager Congo Brazzaville and France. He became Director for Evaluation of New Areas in 1997. In 2000 he was appointed as Senior VP Geoscience of the TOTAL Exploration and Production Direction and held this position until his retimerent in2009. He has been a member for many years of professional associations including AAPG, SPE,EAGE and is the actual President of the advisory board of Ecole nationale Supérieure de Géologie in Nancy.

Pierre Mauriaud After a master in geology and a degree from the IFP School, he joined ELF as a geologist in 1978. holding a variety of positions focusing on basin evaluation, prospect generation and appraisal of discoveries in Canada and France. He was in charge of exploration in Malaysia, Congo and Spain. He is presently Exploration Training and Technical Image manager

Dr. Euan Mearns, University of Aberdeen and The Oil Drum

Euan Mearns has B.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in geology from The University of Aberdeen. He worked as a researcher at The University of Oslo and then The Norwegian Institute for Energy Technology for a total of 8 years. In 1991 he set up a company in Aberdeen, Scotland providing isotope analyses to the international oil industry. His company worked for over 60 exploration and production companies world wide but eventually ran out of reservoirs to characterise and the company was sold in 2001. He is an Editor at The Oil Drum and since 2009 Euan has been an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen. His main interests lie in understanding energy systems, forecasting, and energy policy.

Dr. David Murphy, Energy Consultant

David Murphy holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Science from State University of New York, largely focused on the interplay between energy and economics. In addition to academic work, he contributes to the energy blog The Oil Drum and is an independent consultant within the energy field. He has published a number of articles on Energy Return on Investment (EROI) of different energy sources, and is currently studying the energy-GDP relation from a thermodynamic perspective.

Bruce Robinson, Convenor ASPO-Australia

Bruce is a physical scientist with 30 years experience in mineral research instrumentation with CSIRO, Australia's research organisation.  He has studied forecasts of world oil depletion since 1996 and attended the first six International Workshops on Oil Depletion held  by ASPO-International, .  He is a member of the board of ASPO-International. Bruce was asked to establish ASPO-Australia in 2005. It now has working groups in most capital cities and regional centres and on specific topics, such as the Finance, Health, and Social Services sectors, as well as transport and urban planning.  He has presented invited papers on Peak Oil at conferences in Lisbon, Beijing, Kyoto, Seoul, and Vienna. Since 2004, he has been English editor of "Petroleum Science", the international journal published by the China University of Petroleum in Beijing.

Jeff Rubin, Author and Former Chief Economist Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, has been the top-ranked economist in Canadian financial markets for more than a decade. He is best known for his work on global energy markets and has become internationally recognized for his prescient calls on oil prices and their economic impacts. He recently stepped down as Chief Economist at CIBC World Markets in order to devote his time exclusively to speaking and writing on economic issues. His path-breaking book, Why Your World Is About To Get a Whole Lot Smaller, published by Random House, was released simultaneously in Canada, the US and the United Kingdom in May 2009. Jeff Rubin’s opinions have been widely reported in the international media including television appearances on ABC, CBS, CNN and CNBC, and front page articles in newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, USA Today, Financial Times, BusinessWeek, Newsweek and The Economist.

Jörg Schindler, Energy Watch Group and ASPO Germany

Jörg Schindler was born 1943 in Augsburg, Germany. He studied business economics in Munich and in 1968 acquired a degree as Diplomkaufmann (BA). In the 1970s he worked with various companies in the development of novel transport systems. In 1984 he joined Ludwig-Bölkow-Systemtechnik (LBST), a consulting company for transport and energy in Ottobrunn, and in 1992 became managing director. He retired at the end of 2008. He is coauthor of several books and also studies for the Energy Watch Group. He is a founding member and in the board of ASPO Germany.

Dr. Christian Anton Smedshaug, senior advisor Norwegian Farmer's Union is senior advisor of the Norwegian Farmer’s Union on issues of agriculture, trade, and development. In 2000 he was awarded a Ph.D. in ecology from the University of Oslo. From 2001 to 2003 he worked on agricultural policy for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) in the Norwegian Ministry of Agriculture. Since 2003 he has worked with the Norwegian Farmers Union as senior advisor. He is the author of Can Agriculture Feed the World? Agriculture and Society in the 21^st Century, published in Norwegian (2008) and English (2010).  His book provides a historical understanding of agricultural development over the last two centuries and discusses how to feed the world in light of climate change, water shortages, and declining availability of fossil fuels. Next to agriculture he also writes within political economy and is currently working on a book about the Western Debt Crisis.

Bengt Söderbergh, Former member Global Energy Systems, Uppsala University, has a Ph.D. in Engineering Science with specialization in the science of Global Energy Resources and a Master of Science in Business and Economics, both from Uppsala University, Sweden. Bengt Soderbergh worked with Uppsala Hydrocarbon Depletion Study Group (UHDSG) August, 2004 - January, 2010. Bengt Soderbergh’s research work was primarily focused on Norwegian and Russian natural gas production, global natural gas production, Canadian oil sands and short- and medium-term global oil production outlooks. The natural gas research was done in collaboration with the Energy Delta Research Center of the University of Groningen and the Energy Delta Institute, Groningen, the Netherlands. Bengt Soderbergh currently works as Senior Oil and Gas Markets analyst at Fortum, Sweden.

Chris Skrebowski, Peak Consulting

Chris Skrebowski is the founding Director of Peak Oil Consulting and the Consulting Editor of Petroleum review. He has 38 years experience in the oil industry, starting work in 1970 as a long-term planner for BP. His career has been divided between industry planning/market analysis and oil journalism. He was Senior Analyst for the Saudi Oil Ministry in London (1985-1994), Editor of Petroleum Economist (1994-97) and Editor of Petroleum Review (1997-2008). Since 2003 he has been presenting on peak oil to a range of business audiences around the world. Chris is a Fellow of the Energy Institute, a founding member of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil (ASPO) and sits on the board of the Oil Depletion and Analysis Centre (ODAC). He speaks and publishes regularly on oil and gas related subjects in the international media.

Prof. Dr. Paul Stevens, Chatham House  

Senior Research Fellow (Energy) at Chatham House (The Royal Institute of International Affairs) in London (www.chathamhouse.org.uk ). Educated as an economist and as a specialist on the Middle East at Cambridge and the School of Oriental and African Studies; 1973-1979 teaching at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon interspersed with two years as an oil consultant;  1979-93 at the University of Surrey. Between 1993 and 2008, he was Professor of Petroleum Policy and Economics at the Centre for Energy, Petroleum and Mineral Law and Policy, University of Dundee, Scotland, a chair created by BP.  He is now Professor Emeritus at the University of Dundee and Consulting Professor at Stanford University. Professor Stevens has published extensively on energy economics, the international petroleum industry, economic development issues and the political economy of the Gulf.  He also works as a consultant for many companies and governments. In March 2009 he was presented with the OPEC Award.

Erik Townsend, Private Investor

Erik Townsend was a technologist and entrepreneur during the 1990s technology boom, and is now a private investor based in Hong Kong. He manages his own investments on a full-time basis, and is presently engaged in launching a Peak Oil hedge fund. Mr. Townsend’s investment strategy is driven my macroeconomics, and focuses on major trends affecting the world, including sovereign debt and natural resource depletion. Peak Oil is therefore a central theme in his overall investment strategy, and Erik recently self-produced two free informational videos on the subject of peak oil investing, which can be found at www.eriktownsend.com/peakoil.

Prof. Dr. Aviel Verbruggen, University of Antwerp

Aviel Verbruggen, Energy & Environmental Economist,  is Professor at the University of Antwerp since 1993. He has a training in engineering and applied economics at Leuven, Antwerp and Stanford University. During his career he founded a number of research and advisory units in Belgium (STEM, REGASA, CENERGIE). He conceived, supervised and edited the State of the Environment Reports (MIRA) in Flanders (1993-98), and was the first president of Flanders’ Environmental Advisory Council (MiNa-Raad) (1991-95). He is a member of IPCC as a part of the Third and Fourth Assessment Reports, Working Group III: Mitigation and Adaptation (1998-2007), and as lead Author of the special report on Renewable Energy (2009-10).

Dr. Jean-Luc Wertz, Valbiom & Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech & University of Liege, was trained as a civil chemical engineer (1975), a PhD in Applied Sciences (1981), and holds a degree in Economic Sciences (1979), from the Université catholique de Louvain. He worked at UCL as a Research Associate, at Procter & Gamble as an R&D Manager, at PA Technology as Consultant, at SPONTEX Worldwide in France as Director of R&D and member of Managing Board, and at EDANA (European Disposables and Nonwovens Association) as a Technical Director. Since 2008 he works at  ValBiom, /Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, and the University of Liege as Project Manager in the field of renewable raw materials (biorefineries, biobased polymers, hemp…). He is author of the book “Cellulose Science and Technology” (2010).

Dr. Geert Woltjer, Wageningen UR LEI

Geert Woltjer worked till April 2006 as assistant professor at Maastricht University, the Netherlands, and since then as senior researcher at the research institute LEI in The Hague, part of Wageningen UR in the Netherlands. He wrote his PhD in Maastricht about an agent-based macroeconomic simulation game. At LEI he develops the general equilibrium model MAGNET, an extended version of the international trade model GTAP. This model is for example used to analyze the effects of biofuels and agricultural policy on greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, and agricultural prices. He wrote a textbook on introductory economics (in Dutch), and wrote a number of articles, ranging from happiness studies, economic education to economic policy analysis.

Ir. Jean-Luc Wingert, ASPO France

Jean-Luc  Wingert  is  consultant  specialized  in  the  field  of  energy  and  development  strategy.  Author  of  the  book  “La  vie  après le pétrole” available in French, Korean and Arab. He is a member  of  ASPO  France,  and  he  has  been  involved  in many  committees  and  conferences  about  peak oil,  its  energy  alternatives  and  its  socioeconomic  consequences. He  has  a Master  in  Economic Development  (EHESS  -  Paris) and  a  Master-Engineer  degree  (University  of  Nancy).  He  started  his  career  as a  strategy  and  organisation  consultant  in  a French  consulting  company  and is founder of Symbioz  Development.

Prof. Dr. Jean-Pascal van Ypersele, Professor at Université catholique de Louvain and Vice-chair IPCC

Jean-Pascal van Ypersele (1957, Belgium), has a Ph. D. in physics from the Université catholique de Louvain, where he is extraordinary professor of climatology and environmental sciences, and directs the Master programme in Science and Management of the Environment. He made his doctoral research in climatology at NCAR in the USA. He specialized in modelling climate and the climate effects of human activities, and has recently focused his research on the impacts of clamte change and integrated assessment modelling. He chairs the Energy & Climate Working Group of the Belgian Federal Council for Sustainable Development. Since 2002, he is member of the Bureau of the IPCC, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and has been elected Vice-chair of IPCC in 2008. In 2009, he was elected a Member of the Belgian Royal Academy.

Photo: ©Jacky Delorme (UCL)

Special Contributors to the Discussion Panels 

Arthur Berman, Labyrinth Consulting Services, ASPO USA is a geological consultant with thirty-two years of experience in petroleum exploration and production. He currently is consulting for several E&P companies and capital groups in the energy sector. He is a Director of ASPO-USA (Association for the Study of Peak Oil & Gas USA).  He is on the editorial board and a frequent contributor at The Oil Drum, and an associate editor of the AAPG (American Association of Petroleum Geologists) Bulletin.  He was past Editor of the Houston Geological Society Bulletin (2004-2005) and past Vice-President of the Society (2008-2009). He has published over 100 articles on geology, technology, and the petroleum industry during the past 5 years. Publication topics include shale gas plays, petroleum exploration, oil and gas price trends and cycles, petroleum play evaluation, sequence stratigraphy, coastal subsidence, earthquakes, tsunamis, and petroleum geopolitics. He is a guest lecturer at the Rice University Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Management.

Dr. Colin J. Campbell, Honorary Chairman of ASPO

Colin Campbell took a degree in geology at Oxford University in 1954 followed by a Ph.D. researching the geology of Ireland and Borneo. He joined the oil industry in 1958 as a field geologist working in Trinidad, Colombia and New Guinea before moving into management, working during his career for Texaco, BP, Amoco and Petrofina as well as for smaller independent companies. His last industry position was that of Executive Vice-President for Fina in Norway. After retirement in 1989, he found himself consulting to major oil companies and governments. He also helped found ASPO following a conference in Uppsala University. He has given over a hundred presentations on Oil Depletion at conferences around the world, and has written numerous articles for the scientific and general press, as well as taking part on radio and television programmes. He is author of six books, including Oil Crisis published in 2005, and an Atlas of Oil and Gas Depletion, published in 2008.

Dr. Dominique Gusbin, Belgian Federal Planning Bureau, Team Director Energy and Transport, has a PhD in High Energy Physics and a Degree in Economics. Since 1985, she has been developing an expertise in the
fields of energy, transport and the environment. Her main study areas are long-term energy forecasts, the development of electricity and gas sectors at Belgian and European levels, and the impact of economic and regulatory policies  on energy consumption and production patterns. In the field of transport and environment, she investigates the relations between transport, energy and pollutant emissions, looks at the effect of transport policies, and studies the impact on the energy system of policies aiming at reducing the emissions of acid pollutants and greenhouse gases caused by energy consumption. Since January 2001, she works at the Federal Planning Bureau where she coordinates the team "Energy and Transport" within the Sectoral Directorate.

Dr. Susan Krumdieck, Director, Advanced Energy and Material Systems Lab, University of Canterbury, is Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and director of the Advanced Energy and Materials System Lab. She earned Bachelors and Masters degrees from Arizona State University and earned her PhD from the University of Colorado at Boulder in advanced materials for thin film energy applications. Susan’s research group works on developing engineering analysis and modelling tools for transition of transport and power systems to greatly reduced fossil fuel demand. She has delivered more than 70 invited keynote and seminar presentations to community groups, councils and professional organisations on future energy transition issues in the last four years. Susan was the convenor of the Signs of Change conference in 2010, guest editor of Energy Policy, and was selected the IET Prestige lecturer for 2010.

Ir. Jean Laherrère, co-founder of ASPO, has an engineers degree from Ecole Poytechnique and Ecole Nationale du Petrole in Paris. After graduation he began working for Compagnie Francaise des Pétroles (now TOTAL) in exploration in the Sahara, Australia, and Canada where he worked for 15 years. After this period he worked for Total at the headquarters in Paris in a number of positions ranging from technical services, research, to deputy exploration manager. During this period he was director of the Compagnie Generale de Geophysique, and President of the Exploration Commission of the Comite des Techniciens of the French Petroleum Industry. In 1991 he retired after which he continued to write a large number of reports and articles on the world's oil and gas potential, first for Petroconsultants and Petroleum Economist and later for the association for the study of peakoil & gas which he co-founded in 2001.

René Poismans is an agronomical engineer  with a master degree in management. He worked for 13 years in central Africa on various agricultural development projects. After his return he followed for Belgium, as a public servant, agricultural policies at international level (FAO, OECD, WTO). He’s been now for ten years involved in CAP policy making and implementation. First as a public servant for Wallonia ( the agricultural competence is fully regionalized in Belgium since 2001). Then as a counsellor for the regional minister of agriculture, Benoit Lutgen.  And now, back in the Walloon  administration, as acting director of the « Direction of coordination and concertation » in charge of coordinating agricultural as well as environmental positions within Wallonia and with other partners such us federal authorities and the other Regions.  

Prof. Dr. Douglas Reynolds

Dr. Doug Reynolds is a professor of oil and energy economics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and previously worked as a mechanical engineer.  He has done energy consulting for the State of Alaska and has several academic, peer reviewed articles in the energy field as well as editorials, general articles and two published books.  He is currently on sabbatical at AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow, Poland.  He has studied or researched energy issues in Kazakstan, Mexico, Norway, Russia and now in Poland and has published two books on energy including "Scarcity and Growth Considering Oil and Energy,” and “Alaska and North Slope Natural Gas.”  His current book project, “Energy Civilization” explores historical economies relative to energy supplies.