Dr. Michael Webber
Dr. Michael E. Webber is Chairman of the Board for IdeaSmiths, which he helped co-found in 2013. He is also the Sid Richardson Chair in the LBJ School of Public Affairs and the John J. McKetta Centennial Energy Chair in the department of mechanical engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. In addition to his role as a faculty member, from August 2021 to September 2024, Webber served as CTO of Energy Impact Partners, a $5 billion venture fund focused on investments in cleantech and climate tech startups with the potential for deep decarbonization at speed and scale. Furthermore, from September 2018 to August 2021, Webber was based in Paris, France where he served as the Chief Science and Technology Officer at ENGIE, one of the world’s largest energy companies.
Dr. Webber’s expertise spans research and education at the convergence of engineering, policy, and commercialization on topics related to innovation, energy, and the environment. He has authored or co-authored more than 600 publications, including five full-length general interest books, and holds 6 patents. His book Power Trip: the Story of Energy was published in 2019 by Basic Books with an award-winning 12-part companion series spread out over two seasons that aired on PBS, Amazon Prime, AppleTV, and in-flight entertainment on American Airlines. His essays have been published in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Scientific American and more. Webber’s scholarly articles have appeared in top journals such as Science, Nature, and Environmental Science & Technology. In 2024, Dr. Webber was selected for the Energy Thought Leader: Higher Education award by the American Energy Society and a three-year term as a Fulbright Technical Specialist by the U.S. State Department.
Webber holds a B.S. and B.A. from UT Austin, and M.S. and Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Stanford University.