2016 KEYNOTE SPEAKERS
Alexander Richter -
President of the International Geothermal Association (IGA)
Alexander is the President of the International Geothermal Association (IGA). He is also Director-at-Large on the Board of the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association (CanGEA). He is also Founder and Principal of ThinkGeoEnergy, a geothermal consultancy firm working specialised on strategic, marketing and corporate finance related activities. The firm also operates the leading news service for the global geothermal energy industry, ThinkGeoEnergy.com. He also acts as Marketing & Communications Director for Green Energy Group AS, that provides turn-key modular geothermal wellhead power plants. From 2005 to 2011, he was a director in the Geothermal Energy Team of Icelandic bank Íslandsbanki. As a founding member of the team, he focused on business development, origination and research in geothermal energy.
Susanna Galloni -
Policy Officer, DG Research & Innovation, European Commission
Susanna Galloni is a Policy Officer in the Renewable Energy Sources Unit of the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission. She is responsible for research and innovation policy activities and for the management of research projects in the area of geothermal and wind energy. Susanna holds a Master of Engineering degree in Civil and Environmental Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Ólafur G. Flóvenz -
Chief Executive Officer of Iceland GeoSurvey
Ólafur G. Flóvenz holds a Dr. scient. in geophysics from the University of Bergen, Norway. He has been the CEO of ÍSOR since 2003 and was director of ÍSOR´s predecessor, the GeoScience division of Orkustofnun, since 1997. He has had a permanent position as a geothermal expert at Orkustofnun and ÍSOR since 1979 and as the head of the geophysical department since 1985. He has also been an adjunct professor in geothermics at the University of Iceland. Ólafur has been on numerous boards of directors, including that of the International Geothermal Association (IGA) from 2001 to 2007. His main field of expertise covers geophysical and geothermal exploration.
Hildigunnur H. H. Thorsteinsson -
Managing Director of Research and Development at Reykjavik Energy
Hildigunnur oversees natural resource management and R&D for the company. Previously, she led the Hydrothermal and Resource Confirmation team at the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s Geothermal Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy. There Mrs. Thorsteinsson managed an extensive portfolio of RD&D grants, led technical road mapping and budget formulation. Prior to working for the U.S. Department of Energy, she was a project manager and engineer at geothermal developers in both the United States and Iceland. Currently, Mrs. Thorsteinsson serves on the boards of ON Power, Iceland School of Energy, the Icelandic Geothermal Association and Iceland Geothermal. She received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iceland in 2005, and a Master of Science in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2008.
Hallgrímur Jónasson -
General Director of Rannís - The Icelandic Centre for Research
Hallgrímur Jónasson has been the General Director for Rannís, the Icelandic Centre for Research, since April 2008. Rannís supports research, innovation, education and culture in Iceland, f. ex. by administrating competitive funds in the aforementioned fields as well as strategic research programmes. He was the General Director for Icetec, the Technological Institute of Iceland from 1992 to 2007. Hallgrímur was the chairman for the Technology board of the Science and Technology Policy Council (STPC) from the beginning in 2003 to 2008 and a member of the board for the Technology Development Fund from 2004 to 2009. Rannís cooperates closely with the STPC and provides professional assistance in the preparation and implementation of the national science and technology policy. He received a BSc in Geology in form University of Iceland and a MSc in Engineering from University of Durham, England, 1981.
Sigurður Magnús Garðarsson -
Professor and GEORG Chairman of the Board of Directors
Dr. Sigurdur M. Gardarsson is a professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Iceland. He has a PhD in Civil and Environmental Engineering from University of Washington. He worked at WEST Consultants in Seattle, USA, 1997-2000, at VST Consulting Engineers Ltd. 2000-2003 in Iceland, as an Associate Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering at University of Iceland in 2003, and was appointed Professor in 2007. He served as Head of Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering in 2008-2014 and is currently the Vice Head of the Faculty, Chairman of the University of Iceland Quality Committee and Chairman of the Geothermal Research Group (GEORG). He has published extensively, advised numerous MS and PhD students and worked on various consulting projects in the field of environmental Engineering, both in the USA and Iceland.
Philippe Jousset -
Researcher in Volcano-Geophysics at the Deutsches GeoForschungsZentrum, Potsdam, Germany
Dr. P. Jousset graduated at the ENSG, Nancy, France(Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie). He obtained his Ph.D. at the Institut de Physique du Globe of Paris in 1996. He has more than 15 years worldwide experience in volcanological research inIndonesia (Merapi volcano), Japan (Hokkaido volcanoes) and Montserrat (West indies) . His main specialities are microgravity, deformation and volcano-seismology
Guðni A Jóhannesson -
Director General of Orkustofnun - The Icelandic National Energy Authority
Since the beginning of 2008 Guðni A is the Director General of Orkustofnun, the Icelandic National Energy Authority which is responsible for public administration of energy research, energy utilization, regulation and oil and gas exploration. Steering group member and former chair of the International Partnership for Geothermal Technologies and presently the coordinator of the Geothermal ERA NET and GEOTHERMICA, a European projects on cooperation on research funding and knowledge base for geothermal utilization. He finished his MSc in Engineering physics in 1976, his PhD thesis on thermal models for buildings in 1981 and was appointed as an associate professor at Lund University in 1982. He was awarded the title of doctor honor is cause from the University of Debrecen in 2008 and the Swedish Concrete Award in 2011. Professor in Building Technology at KTH in Stockholm 1990-2008. Main research areas were building physics and energy conservation in the built environment.