The National Academies’ Climate Crossroads initiative will convene a one-day gathering on October 2, 2026 at the Tempe Center for the Arts to engage experts from utilities, government, academia, and the interested public on opportunities to create a future-ready electricity system with increasing amounts of renewables that provides high reliability and resilience under long durations of extreme heat. The objective is to highlight the innovations needed in this electricity system so it can continue to modernize to meet its future needs, and to provide a blueprint for other systems to follow. Additional details can be found at the webpage for this event:
Arizona Crossroads: Building the Grid of the Future.
Call for Abstracts: The symposium invites upper-level undergraduate, graduate students, and early-career researchers to submit abstracts for posters describing innovative research, analysis, or projects at the intersection of grid infrastructure and operations, energy systems, and extreme heat/climate challenges, particularly work that helps build a future-ready electricity system that can meet growing demand while maintaining reliability and resilience under long durations of extreme heat. Contributions from students and early-career researchers in engineering, energy policy, climate science, urban planning, public health, and related fields are encouraged.
Selected presenters over 50 miles away from the venue will receive travel support. While not limited to the below topics, the workshop is particularly interested in posters that address the following:
- Approaches for meeting the challenges of bringing on sufficient generation capacity to meet increasing demands while maintaining affordability, resilience/reliability, and environmental performance
- Planning approaches for integrating more variable renewable generation, geothermal energy, and battery storage while modernizing grid infrastructure and enabling an equitable energy future for Arizona
- Proactive system planning changes to accommodate the performance of renewable energy generation and storage sources under heat stress
- Strategies for power system maintenance during periods of extreme heat
In addition, posters may explore the role of large emerging loads in shaping future grid planning, such as data centers and semiconductor manufacturing, or examine innovations from utilities, government, and academia that could serve as a blueprint for other electricity systems facing similar climate and growth pressures, in any of the above topic areas.
Eligibility Criteria
- Based at an institution in Arizona
- Graduate-level students (including those completing a master’s thesis or PhD), or upper-level undergraduate students or graduate-level students
Benefits
- Opportunities to network with experts from utilities, government, academia, NGOs, and the broader energy community
- Travel support available for selected poster presenters who are over 50 miles away from the meeting venue
Selection Process: Abstracts will be reviewed by planning committee members. Authors must submit their applications by August 26, 2026. Selected posters will be notified by September 9, 2026 and will have the opportunity to participate in the full symposium in person in Tempe, AZ on October 2, 2026. Travel and lodging will be covered by the National Academies for invited poster presenters. Presenters will be acknowledged on the event’s website.
All applications and materials must be received by the application deadline of August 26, 2026. Draft responses will not be saved. Once your application is complete, click the “Submit” button located at the bottom of the page.
Questions? Contact LKalinosky@nas.edu.