David Hults is a Research Affiliate at Stanford University's Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD).  His areas of academic interest include the role of energy in the developing world, climate change, and Latin American law.  From 2008 to 2009, David served as a Postdoctoral Fellow at PESD.  David received a J.D. with distinction from Stanford Law School in 2008, where he was Senior Editor for the Stanford Law Review and Senior Articles Editor for the Stanford Journal of International Law.  Before coming to Stanford, David worked on Latin American economic issues at the U.S. Department of State for more than three years.  David previously earned a B.A. in International Studies from the University of Florida and an M.A. in International Relations from Yale University. 

Mark C. Thurber is Associate Director of the Program on Energy and Sustainable Development (PESD) at Stanford University, where he studies and teaches about energy and environmental markets and policy. Dr. Thurber has written and edited books and articles on topics including global fossil fuel markets, climate policy, integration of renewable energy into electricity markets, and provision of energy services to low-income populations.

Dr. Thurber co-edited and contributed to Oil and Governance: State-owned Enterprises and the World Energy Supply  (Cambridge University Press, 2012) and The Global Coal Market: Supplying the Major Fuel for Emerging Economies (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He is the author of Coal (Polity Press, 2019) about why coal has thus far remained the preeminent fuel for electricity generation around the world despite its negative impacts on local air quality and the global climate.

Dr. Thurber teaches a course on energy markets and policy at Stanford, in which he runs a game-based simulation of electricity, carbon, and renewable energy markets. With Dr. Frank Wolak, he also conducts game-based workshops for policymakers and regulators. These workshops explore timely policy topics including how to ensure resource adequacy in a world with very high shares of renewable energy generation.

Dr. Thurber has previous experience working in high-tech industry. From 2003-2005, he was an engineering manager at a plant in Guadalajara, México that manufactured hard disk drive heads. He holds a Ph.D. from Stanford University and a B.S.E. from Princeton University.