Contact: Kathleen Maclay, 510-643-5651, kmaclay@berkeley.edu; Henry Stern, BERC Outreach Coordinator, 310-425-2995, henrystern@berkeley.edu

BERKELEY, Calif., Mar.  15 /Standard Newswire/ -- The University of California, Berkeley's Haas School of Business today released the following media advisory.

The first annual University of California, Berkeley, Energy Symposium - "Challenges, Opportunities, and the Role of UC Berkeley in Creating a Sustainable Energy Future." The event will bring together 150 of UC Berkeley's leading researchers in energy technology, economics, and policy with the nation's top "cleantech" investors, industry experts, business leaders, and entrepreneurs.

Keynote speakers will include UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and Nobel Prize winner Steven Chu, director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, among others.

The symposium will highlight clean energy innovations emerging from several segments of the UC Berkeley community and include discussions about energy-efficiency, transportation fuels, solar technologies, carbon regulation and innovation, energy storage, and energy economics. A student poster session will display more than 50 research projects of UC Berkeley's top graduate students.

Event Details---

When: Wednesday, March 21, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST

Where:  Martin Luther King, Jr. Student Union, on Bancroft Way at Telegraph Avenue. A campus map is online at berc.berkeley.edu/symposium-directions.html  

Who: Additional keynote speakers will include: William Banholzer, chief technology officer of Dow Chemical Company David Crane, special jobs and economic growth advisor to Gov. Schwarzenegger Ira Ehrenpreis, general partner of Technology Partners Chris Somerville, director of plant biology with the Carnegie Institution Art Rosenfeld, a commissioner with the California Energy Commission

Why: The Energy Symposium is being organized by the Berkeley Energy and Resources Collaborative. BERC, an interdisciplinary, student-run organization, was founded in 2005 to enhance interdepartmental collaboration on energy issues and to serve as a bridge between the university and the private sector.

Innovations will be highlighted at the symposium from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Haas School of Business, Energy and Resources Group, UC Energy Institute; School of Law (Boalt Hall), College of Engineering, College of Chemistry, Goldman School of Public Policy, Institute of Transportation Studies, College of Natural Resources, and Center for Information Technology Research in the Interest of Society (CITRIS).

Reporters are invited to attend the symposium free of charge. Contact outreach coordinator Henry Stern at 310-425-2995 or henrystern@berkeley.edu.