Abstract:
Strategically deployed, industrial electrification can do more than decarbonize—it can enhance energy efficiency and serve as a hedge against increasingly volatile fossil fuel markets. Yet realizing electrification at scale faces real barriers, from persistent technological challenges and policies to regulate cross-sectoral interactions to growing competition for renewable electrons driven by rapidly growing end-uses like AI data centers.
This symposium brings together experts from industry, academia, government, and the nonprofit sector to take stock of where industrial electrification stands today, what the possibilities look like on the horizon, and what it will take to get there.
Agenda
9:00 – 9:45 am Arrival and Registration
Maker EventSpace foyer
9:45 – 9:50 am Welcome
6 MTC 475
André Taylor (Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, NYU Tandon, and Director, DC-MUSE)
9:50 – 10:00 am Opening Remarks
6 MTC 475
Eray Aydil (Senior Vice Dean, NYU Tandon School of Engineering)
10:00 – 11:00 am Plenary Talk I
6 MTC 475
"Optimizing Industrial Gas and Electricity Value Chains amid Disruptions"
Jose Pinto (Director, Linde)
11:00 – 11:30 am Coffee Break
Maker EventSpace foyer
11:30 am – 12:30 pm Research Parallel Breakout Sessions I
Two sessions run at the same time
Basic Science and Engineering of Industrial Electrification
Maker EventSpace
"Electrification and Intensification of Chemical Reactors", Dion Vlachos (University of Delaware)
"Software-defined metamaterial reactors for electrified thermochemical conversion", Jonathan Fan (Stanford University)
Moderator: André Taylor (NYU)
Systems and Policy: Process Perspectives on Industrial Electrification
6 MTC 475
"Systems Engineering for Industrial Electrification", Christos Maravelias (Princeton University)
"Systems perspective on industrial process electrification", Dharik Mallapragada (NYU)
Moderator: Yury Dvorkin (The Johns Hopkins University)
12:30 – 1:30 pm Lunch
Maker EventSpace foyer
1:30 – 2:30 pm Research Parallel Breakout Sessions II
The same two rooms as the morning.
Basic Science and Engineering of Industrial Electrification
Maker EventSpace
"Modeling Transport and Reaction in Electrochemical Devices for Industrial Decarbonization", Justin Bui (NYU)
"Using Electrochemistry to Electrify Organic Reactions", Elizabeth Biddinger (The City College of New York)
Moderator: André Taylor (NYU)
Systems and Policy: Grid Perspectives on Industrial Electrification
6 MTC 475
"Enabling Resilient and Fair Electrification with Energy Storage", Bolun Xu (Columbia University)
"What It Takes to Electrify in 2026: Has AI Eaten a Glorious Electrification Future?", Yury Dvorkin (The Johns Hopkins University)
Moderator: Dharik Mallapragada (NYU)
2:30 – 2:45 pm Coffee Break and Transition to Plenary Session
Maker EventSpace foyer
2:45 – 3:45 pm Plenary Talk II
6 MTC 475
"From Superwood to Artificial Sun: Inventing Materials through Scalable Innovation"
Liangbing Hu (Yale University)
3:45 – 4:45 pm Industrial, Government, and Foundations Panel Discussion
6 MTC 475
Panelists:
Rebecca Dell (Senior Fellow, Climate Knowledge Initiative, Columbia)
Nir Vaks (Director, Energy Transition, Lummus Technology)
Susan Schofer (Chief Science Officer, HAX)
Sean Mulderrig (Program Manager, Clean & Resilient Buildings, NYSERDA)
Christoph Graf (Senior Economist, Institute for Policy Integrity, NYU)
Moderator: Craig Bettenhausen (Senior Editor, C&EN)
4:45 – 5:00 pm Summary and Closing Remarks
6 MTC 475
Dharik Mallapragada (Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, NYU Tandon)
5:00 – 6:00 pm Networking Poster Session
Maker EventSpace (6 MTC 116)
All sessions in 6 MTC 475 are streamed live via Zoom to the Maker EventSpace, except during the breakout sessions, when the Maker EventSpace is running the Basic Science and Engineering breakout live.
If you're registering as a non-NYU attendee, please bring a photo ID with you.