About the Energy Institute

DR. GREG UPTON, Interim Director

Dr. Greg Upton serves as Executive Director & Associate Research Professor at the LSU Center for Energy Studies. His research interests span energy and environmental economics. He has contributed to over 40 publications and presented research to more than 200 industry, government, and academic audiences, including testifying in committees of both chambers of the Louisiana Legislature and a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives. He is regularly interviewed on live talk radio and other news outlets and has been quoted or cited over 250 times in local and national media including the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, and NPR. He is the President-Elect for the United States Association for Energy Economics (USAEE), a member of the University Advisory Board to the Center for Legislative Energy & Environmental Research (CLEER) and an appointee to the National Petroleum Council (NPC). He is a legislatively appointed member of the Clean Hydrogen Task Force created by House Concurrent Resolution 64 of the 2024 Regular Session of the Louisiana Legislature as well as the Task Force on Local Impacts of Carbon Capture and Sequestration created by Senate Resolution 179 of the 2023 Regular Special Session of the Louisiana Legislature. He is part of the Baton Rouge Business Report Forty Under 40 class of 2024 and an LSU alumnus, receiving his Ph.D. in Economics from LSU in 2014.

DR. MARGARET REAMS, Associate Director of Community Engagement

Dr. Margaret Reams is the Joseph D. Martinez Professor of Environmental Sciences in LSU’s College of the Coast and Environment and serves as the Associate Director for Community Engagement at the LSU Energy Institute.

Dr. Reams is an expert in community engagement theory and methods as they relate to environmental policy development and implementation. A political scientist with 30 years of experience, she has taught graduate courses in environmental policy, program evaluation, environmental planning, and conflict resolution. Her research focuses on working with Louisiana agencies and communities to enhance resilience to environmental disturbances. She was also a co-principal investigator on the $12.5 million grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences that established the LSU Superfund Research Center.

Dr. Reams has led focus groups and community surveys on environmental and land-use policy preferences, attitudes, and risk perceptions concerning environmental hazards, remediation strategies, and technologies. She received the LSU Foundation Distinguished Faculty Teaching Award for her exceptional graduate-level teaching and mentoring, having supervised over ninety MS theses on various environmental policy and public attitude issues. Dr. Reams holds an undergraduate degree from Huntingdon College and an MA and PhD in political science from the University of Georgia.

DR. CLARE FALCON, Director of Louisiana Geological Survey and State Geologist

Clare Falcon is the state geologist of Louisiana and director of the Louisiana Geological Survey, or LGS. She brings more than 25 years of professional geoscience experience, most of which has been in industry. 

Most recently, Falcon has worked in Houston for BHP, a global resources company headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. Since 2017, she served as a leadership coach, a geoscience manager, and a geologist on Gulf of Mexico exploration and appraisal projects in the U.S. and Mexico. Previously, she led the Gulf of Mexico exploration team as an exploration sedimentologist for Italian multinational oil and gas company Eni. She received her PhD from the University of Leeds in the UK.

The position of state geologist of Louisiana was established in 1870, and the present Louisiana Geological Survey was established by the Louisiana Legislature in 1934. Falcon is the first woman to become Louisiana’s state geologist and the director of the Louisiana Geological Survey. The mission of the Louisiana Geological Survey is to provide information about Louisiana geology and its relationship to mineral, water, energy, and environmental resources. This gives the state and its citizens geological information relevant to economic resources, environmental protection, and natural hazards.

As part of the LSU Energy Institute, Falcon and LGS continue to share their expertise in subsurface, geological, and geophysical analysis.

CHRIS MCLINDON, Director of Energy Education & Outreach

Chris McLindon has long served as Director of Energy Education and Outreach for the LSU Center for Energy Studies. He oversees the development and implementation of educational programs aimed at preparing the next generation of energy leaders. He also engages with key stakeholders, including policymakers, industry professionals, and the general public to promote awareness and understanding of key energy issues.

Chris worked for four decades as a geologist in the upstream oil and gas industry and more recently as a geologist in the carbon capture and storage industry. The latter experience included the exploration and development of new sites for CO₂ sequestration in Louisiana and Texas, the development of geological models for CO₂ injection simulation, and geological site characterization for Class VI permit applications for CCS projects in Louisiana and Texas.

Chris holds a B.S. in Geology from LSU. He is a member and past president of the New Orleans Geological Society, and is a member of the Geological Society of America and the Society of Independent Professional Earth Scientists.

DR. MARK KAISER, Professor and Director of the Research & Development Division at the Center for Energy Studies

Dr. Mark Kaiser is a professor and director of the Research & Development Division at the Center for Energy Studies and Marathon Oil Professor of Energy Policy. His primary research interest covers the oil, gas, and refining industry and is related to cost assessment, fiscal system analysis, economic and infrastructure modeling, and valuation studies. His work appears across a broad spectrum of energy, engineering, mathematics, scientific, and policy journals.

Dr. Kaiser received his doctorate in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Purdue University and has consulted and served as technical advisor to corporations and government agencies.

DR. WEI-HSUNG WANG, Professor and Director of the LSU Radiation Safety Office

Dr. Wei-Hsung Wang is a professor at the Center for Energy Studies, director of LSU’s Radiation Safety Office, an adjunct professor in the Department of Physics & Astronomy and the Department of Environmental Sciences, and a clinical professor of radiology at LSU Health New Orleans. He teaches on radiation protection and exposure evaluation, remediation, and nuclear safety and received his Ph.D. in health physics from Purdue University.

His research centers on the development of workable solutions to practical radiological protection, radiation detection, and environmental impact issues. Most of his work has emphasized operational radiation safety, radiation detection instrumentation, air monitoring methodology, radioactive waste management, gamma-ray spectroscopy, radiation dosimetry, environmental radiation, and radiological emergency response planning and preparedness. He holds a U.S. patent on a real-time video radiation exposure monitoring system.

Dr. Wang is certified by the American Board of Health Physics (ABHP), the Board of Certified Safety Professionals, and the Board of Laser Safety and a charter member of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board and its Radiation Advisory Committee.