33rd International Symposium on Sustainable Systems and Technology – ISSST 2026
June 16 - 18, 2026 | Rochester, NY
Conference Agenda
Overview and details of the sessions of this conference. Please select a date or location to show only sessions at that day or location. Please select a single session for detailed view (with abstracts and downloads if available).
|
Agenda Overview |
| 9:00am - 5:00pm |
Pre-Conference Workshop 1: LCA of Emerging Technology |
|
| 10:00am - 1:30pm |
Pre-Conference Workshop 2: Quantifying Robust Energy Demand Futures Eric Williams, Eric Hittinger, Subhrajit Guhathakurta The workshop is a collaborative effort among researchers to better understand the state of practices in forecasting energy demand and to identify directions for improvement. |
Pre-Conference Workshop 3: Building Sustainable Careers: Hands-On Mentoring and Practice in Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) Consulting Ghasideh Pourhashem, Aryandokht Azari This half-day, interactive workshop empowers early-career professionals and recent graduates to confidently apply their academic knowledge in real-world consulting contexts. |
| 2:00pm - 5:00pm |
Pre-Conference Workshop 4: Using Climate Data to Inform Sustainability and Resilience Karen Smith This workshop invites participants to explore the integration of future climate information into the decision-making process. |
|
| 5:30pm - 7:30pm |
Pre-Conference Social Event |
Early Registration |
| 8:15am - 9:45am |
Special Session I: TBA |
||
| 8:30am - 10:00am |
Registration |
||
| 9:45am - 10:00am |
Transition II-1 |
||
| 10:00am - 10:20am |
Welcoming Remarks 1: Program Chairs |
||
| 10:20am - 10:40am |
Welcoming Remarks 2: Dr. Nabil Nasr Dr. Nabil Nasr is Associate Provost for Academic Affairs and Director of Golisano Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). |
||
| 10:40am - 11:30am |
Keynote 1: Dr. Mario Herrero Mario Herrero is a professor of sustainable food systems and global change in the Department of Global Development and a Nancy and Peter Meinig Family Investigator in the Life Sciences. |
||
| 11:30am - 12:30pm |
Lunch 1 |
||
| 12:30pm - 12:40pm |
Transition II-2 |
||
| 12:40pm - 1:25pm |
Lightning Talk 1 |
Lightning Talk 2 |
|
| 1:25pm - 1:45pm |
Transition II-3 |
||
| 1:45pm - 3:05pm |
ITM1: Circular Economy & MFA |
SRE1: Modeling New Grid Demand |
Workshop I: Sustainability and Ethics in STEM Education |
| 3:05pm - 3:25pm |
Transition II-4 |
||
| 3:25pm - 4:45pm |
SEC1: Innovative Education |
SRE2: Energy for Transportation |
SRI1: Environmental Systems |
| 4:45pm - 5:00pm |
Transition II-5 |
||
| 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
Poster Session |
||
| 8:00am - 8:30am |
Breakfast I |
||
| 8:30am - 9:20am |
Keynote 2: Dr. Destenie Nock Dr. Destenie Nock is a leader in energy justice, energy justice, and sustainable energy transition trade-off analysis. |
||
| 9:20am - 9:35am |
Transition III-1 |
||
| 9:35am - 10:55am |
AIB1: Food & Ag |
SRE3: Macro-Energy Systems |
SRI2: Urban Sustainability |
| 10:55am - 11:15am |
Transition III-2 |
||
| 11:15am - 12:35pm |
HDS1: Social Factors |
ITM2: LCA & Emergent Tech I |
SRE4: Critical Materials & Minerals |
| 12:35pm - 12:45pm |
Transition III-3 |
||
| 12:45pm - 1:30pm |
Lunch 2 |
||
| 1:30pm - 2:15pm |
Panel Plenary: Pursuing Circularity in Food Systems Harry Cohen, Kristine Ellsworth, Jason Wadsworth In this panel we will learn about the evolution of organic waste management in New York State and beyond through the experiences of food waste generators, food waste management services, and policy makers. |
||
| 2:15pm - 2:30pm |
Transition III-4 |
||
| 2:30pm - 3:50pm |
ITM3: Sustainable Systems & Resource Management |
SRE5: Sustainable Aviation Fuels |
SRI3: Macro-Energy Systems |
| 3:50pm - 4:10pm |
Transition III-5 |
||
| 4:10pm - 5:30pm |
AIB2: Sustainable Bioproducts |
HDS2: People & Systems |
SRE6: Data Centers |
| 5:30pm - 6:00pm |
Transition III-6 |
||
| 6:00pm - 9:00pm |
Social Events I |
Student Event & Social |
|
| 7:00am - 8:00am |
ISSST Planning Meeting I |
||
| 8:00am - 8:30am |
Breakfast II |
||
| 8:30am - 9:30am |
CST1: Fairness in Sustainability |
Local Showcase: RIT Golisano Institute for Sustainability Tour |
Special Session II: Future Directions in LCA of Emerging Technologies |
| 9:30am - 9:45am |
Transition IIII-1 |
||
| 9:45am - 11:05am |
ITM4: LCA & Emergent Tech II |
Local Showcase (Con't): RIT Golisano Institute for Sustainability Tour |
SRE7: Industrial Energy Use |
| 11:05am - 11:15am |
Transition IIII-2 |
||
| 11:15am - 12:30pm |
Keynote 3: Dr. John Robinson John Robinson is a Professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and the School of the Environment at the University of Toronto, where he is Co-Chair of the President’s Advisory Committee on the Environment, Climate Change and Sustainability. |
||
| 12:30pm - 1:30pm |
Lunch & Student Awards |
||
| 1:45pm - 2:45pm |
ISSST Planning Meeting II |
||
| 2:00pm - 5:00pm |
Technical Workshop 1: A Region-specific LCA Tool for Assessing Carbon Storing Materials (TACSMA): Bridging Sustainable Forest Management and Climate-Forward Design Poulami Karan, Obste Therasme This workshop aims to introduce participants to the structure, logic, and application of TACSMA. |
Technical Workshop 2: Code-based life cycle assessment at NREL: introduction to LiAISON, CE ABM, and other tools. |
Technical Workshop 3: Quantum Optimization for Recycling Networks: Advancing Circular Economy Through Quantum Computing Rythwik Salhotra Participants will gain hands-on experience formulating recycling network optimization problems as Quadratic Unconstrained Binary Optimization (QUBO) models suitable for quantum annealers. |
| 5:00pm - 7:00pm |
Social Events II |
||