iCRAG is hosting Dr. Kurt House (see bio below) from KoBold, a company investing in battery materials projects across the globe by combining basic ore-deposit science, big data, and scientific computing with private capital.

Kurt will be giving a technical talk on cobalt supply and demand at the UCD School of Earth Sciences on the 17 January at 1pm in room G01.

Kurt House, Ph.D. Bio (CEO KOBOLD METALS)

Kurt is an entrepreneur who works at the interface of technology and natural resources as well as an Adjunct Professor in Stanford University's Energy Resources Engineering Department. In 2008, he founded his first company, C12 Energy, with an initial investment from Sequoia Capital to develop enhanced oil recovery projects using CO2 from industrial sources. Under Kurt's leadership, C12 Energy acquired multiple properties containing over 60 million barrels of tertiary reserves and grew to over 50 people.

In 2015, Kurt established Phase Change Resources (PCR) as a direct energy investment platform focused on acquiring North American natural gas assets. At PCR, Kurt helped develop a proprietary, physics-based tool that more accurately forecast natural gas production from multi-stage, hydraulically fractured wells. Leveraging its big data tools, PCR partnered with two large private equity funds to underwrite 12 investment opportunities worth over $1.5 billion combined.

Previously, Kurt was a KAUST Research Fellow at MIT where he studied the optimization of miscible flooding projects. He received his Ph.D. from Harvard University in earth & planetary science and his B.A. in physics from the Claremont Colleges. He also worked in private equity and corporate advising for Bain & Company.