This year’s Energy Summit is geared up to provide students a chance to become one with their environment.Each year the Energy Summit gives students and the general public the latest materials on green technology. Students will learn many aspects of how green technology affects our lives and the economy from separate plenary sessions, speakers and exhibits.

Speakers include the world-famous explorer, Will Steger, who started to cross the North Pole without resupply on March 7, 1986, as part of a seven-member team. Steger also crossed Antarctica on foot in March, 1990. This measure of endurance was never done before.

Both polar explorations are documented in his books titled “North to the Pole” and “Crossing Antarctica.”

Another speaker is C.S. Kiang, the Founding Dean of the College of Environmental Sciences, Beijing. Prior to this he was an Institute Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he led the environmental science, engineering and policy program.

He is currently the CEO of Sustainable Development Technologies and Vice Chairman of Global Urban Development. He is a councilor of the World Future Council, a member of the Advisory Board of the Climate Change Capital, a member of the International Council of Asia Society and a member of the Global Agenda Council of Climate Change of the World Economic Forum.

The third speaker is actor and environmentalist Ed Begley, Jr. As an actor, Begley has been on television’s “St. Elsewhere,” in which he received six Emmy nominations, and current films “Pineapple Express” and “A Mighty Wind.”

As an environmentalist, Begley was influenced by Robert Kennedy, Jr.

Kennedy said of Begley, “Ed has a greater sense of social obligation than anyone I know. He’s like a West Coast cadet who gets up every morning and says ‘reporting for duty’.”

The Summit provides a unique opportunity for MATC students to hear from the experts as well as to take in all the exhibits. The cost is free for students – a $250 savings. The lunch provided has a $10 fee, if requested.

The dates are March 24 through March 26 at the Midwest Airlines Center.

The Summit is dedicated to Robert “Bob” Gilbertson, Founder of the Energy Summit, who passed away in 2009. Gilbertson had a long-time association with MATC.

Professor C.S. Kiang, Founding Dean of the College of Environmental Sciences, Beijing University. (MATC Times)

Movie/TV actor and acclaimed advocate for renewable energy Ed Begley, Jr. (MATC Times)