Professor Recognized as a 2016 Peak Scholar

University of Calgary President Elizabeth Cannon hosted the Peak Scholars in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Knowledge Engagement recognition event on Wednesday, Nov. 16, 2016. This event seeks to recognize scholars across faculties whose academic work in knowledge engagement, entrepreneurship, tech transfer, innovation and collaborative research results in a positive social or economic impact in our communities.

This year, Dr. Fenner Stewart was the Faculty of Law’s nominee for the Peak Scholar award for his work in creating the Dentons' North American Energy Law Study Tour, a full year course for students enrolled in the Faculty’s International Energy Lawyers Program. The course provides students with unprecedented engagement with many of the most significant energy lawyers, regulators, producers, stakeholders and academics from both Canada and the US. Through this engagement, students are offered an insider's perspective into the challenges facing policy makers today. Classes are conducted on campuses (at the University of Calgary, the University of Houston Law Centre); at law offices (at Dentons Calgary, Dentons Houston and Dentons Washington DC); and at other sites (at the Railroad Commission of Texas, the Lyondellbasell’s Houston Refinery, US Department of Energy, US Bureau of Land Management, US Environmental Protection Agency, and the Shell Athabasca Oil Sands Project).  

In these constructed learning environments, students, stakeholders, and experts discuss the energy policy challenges in a way that marries academic insights with real-world wisdom. By providing students the ability to translate this energy knowledge into policy action, and by connecting students with elite policy actors, Dr. Stewart, Dentons Canada, and the University of Calgary's Faculty of Law have provided students with a genuine opportunity to become the leaders who will make the critical energy policy decisions which will impact the lives of Canadians tomorrow.