Graduate Student Symposium
The Graduate Student Symposium will be held on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, with additional side events throughout the conference to highlight the graduate student experience. The symposium is an opportunity for graduate students to connect with one another and with industry, learn soft skills to complement the technical focus of the conference, and extend their time horizon beyond graduate school.
In particular, the 2023 edition of the symposium will focus on exploring the different aspects of professional development of graduate students in wind energy. The attendees will have the opportunity to expand and practice their interview skills by giving mock-up technical presentations and elevator pitches. Furthermore, wind energy experts from industry, national labs, and academia will share their experience and the lessons learned throughout their career. Finally, building upon the positive feedback from last year’s symposium, there will be space for discussion on wellness and life-work balance for wind energy professionals.
All graduate students are welcome! The Graduate Student Symposium is open to any graduate student, including those who are not attending the NAWEA/WindTech 2023 conference. (You can register for the conference separately.) These meetings are included in the registration fee, so you can register to attend the symposium and side meetings and workshops at no extra cost.
REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED.
Symposium Schedule and Location
A summary of the planned events and initial descriptions are below.
Location
The symposium on Friday, Nov. 3, 2023, will be hosted by the University of Colorado Boulder at the Sustainability, Energy and Environment Community building in Auditorium C120.
The building is located at 4001 Discovery Drive, Boulder, CO 80303. See a campus map and directions, and make a parking reservation.
Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023
- 6:30 p.m.: Industry Mixer
- Graduate students will have the opportunity to spend a fun evening at the beautiful National Center for Atmospheric Research Mesa Lab (pictured and located at 1850 Table Mesa Dr, Boulder, Colorado, 80305) while meeting and networking with other students and industry professionals in a low stress environment. Dinner will be provided.

Friday, Nov. 3, 2023
- 8:30–9 a.m.: Welcome Coffee
- 9–10:15 a.m.: PhD-to-X: Career Pathways Panel
- This speaker panel will explore the experiences of wind energy researchers in academia, national laboratories, and industry. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions based on their experiences and expectations for their own careers.
- See below for the list of speakers and their bios.
- 10:15–12:15 a.m.: Wind It Up
- Attendees will have the opportunity to give mock interview presentations about their technical experience in front of the audience, building upon the lessons learned during the morning session. Students will present a few technical slides about their research and skills relevant to a job they would like to apply for after graduation (presentation submission guidelines to follow). The top three presentations will be awarded a NAWEA certificate!
- Please indicate your intent to present by Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. Read the full presentation instructions for details.
- Learn about the workshop lead below.
- 12:15–1:30 p.m.: Lunch (Provided by the Organizers)
- 1:30–3:15 p.m.: Tech Talks: Interview Skills
- This interactive workshop will give students the opportunity to develop technical interview skills, with an emphasis on what hiring managers and employers are looking for. This will be a unique learning experience for students looking to perfect their pitching skills and prepare for the competitive wind energy job market.
- 3:15–4 p.m.: Weathering the Turbulence
- Let’s talk about energy! No, not wind energy but your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual energies. Learning how to balance your energy and attend to all dimensions of your well-being can help maintain work-life balance and reduce feelings of burnout. Learn practical and evidence-based strategies that you can use now and as your progress in your career.
- Meet the presenter below.
- 4–4:15 p.m.: Announcement of the Wind It Up Contest Winners and Final Remarks
See the full conference schedule.
Symposium Speakers
Speakers at the symposium’s PhD-to-X: Career Pathways Panel include:
Alexander Bret, Sales Manager, Vaisala Renewable Energy, North America.
The workshop lead for the Wind It Up and Tech Talks: Interview Skills sessions will be:
The Weathering the Turbulence Talk speaker will be:
Symposium Sponsors
Sponsors of the Graduate Student Symposium include:
- European Academy of Wind Energy, an international non-profit organization that promotes and supports the development of wind energy science.
- LR Tech, a Canadian company producing spectroradiometers for thermodynamic profiling of the atmospheric boundary layer.
Symposium Organizing Committee
The Graduate Student Symposium 2023 organizing committee includes:
- Sarah Buckhold (sbuckhol@uwyo.edu), University of Wyoming
- Rad Haghi (rhaghi@uvic.ca), University of Victoria
- Michael Kuhn (michael.kuhn@nrel.gov) , National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Stefano Letizia (stefano.letizia@nrel.gov), National Renewable Energy Laboratory
- Michael LoCascio (locascio@stanford.edu), Stanford University
- Jacob Nadolsky (jacob.nadolsky@ttu.edu), Texas Tech University
- Brooke Stanislawski (brooke.stanislawski@nrel.gov), National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
Updates
Subscribe to the NAWEA email list to get notifications about this conference, including deadline reminders, agenda updates, and more.