Executive Board
The Longhorn Energy Club Executive Board is led by the President, Vice Chair, and Briefing Chair, who lead three respective teams: Strategy, Administration, and Briefing. The Strategy team works on partnerships and club growth. The Administration team focuses on event planning, logistics, and community building. The Briefing team operates like a think tank and outputs analyses for our members, which they present at our monthly Energy Briefing events.
Our team recruits new executive members every March. The next application cycle opens in January 2027.
Samuel Mercer
President
Sam is a fourth-year PhD Candidate in Chemical Engineering, advised by Dr. Michael Baldea. His research focuses on the design, modeling, and optimization of electrified chemical manufacturing processes. He is an Associated Fellow at RWTH Aachen University in Aachen, Germany, where he has developed global methods to solve dynamic optimization problems. In Texas, Sam has been involved with Texas Venture Labs on business model innovations for power system supply chain disruptions and serves on the KBH Energy Center Student Advisory Board. He is also the Lead Fellow for UT Austin at TEX-E, the Texas Exchange for Energy and Climate Entrepreneurship. As an undergraduate, Sam developed catalysts for energy and battery applications at the University of Florida, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (now National Laboratory of the Rockies), and his alma mater – the University of New Hampshire (2023).
Sam has been recognized as an NSF Graduate Research Fellow (GRFP), Barry Goldwater Scholar, S&P Global CERAWeek NextGen Fellow, and national winner of the 2023 AIChE Student Process Design Competition. He was also a U.S. Finalist for Rhodes and Marshall Scholarships. After hours, he enjoys watching college sports, playing piano, and kayaking on the Colorado River in downtown Austin.
Thomas LaMotte
Vice Chair
Thomas is a third-year undergraduate Mechanical Engineering major with a focus on Energy Systems Engineering and Sustainable Engineering. His academic interests lie in the energy market and emerging renewable energy technologies. Thomas has interned with Nexus PMG, a low-carbon infrastructure and engineering advisory firm focused on scaling energy and recycling facilities. On campus, he is involved with the Longhorn Energy Club and the Longhorn Rocketry Association. He is passionate about leadership and the environment, and aims to pursue a career in the new energy space. Outside of school, Thomas is interested in fitness, film, hiking and spending time with family.
Letzter Zhang
Briefing Chair
Letzter Zhang is a third-year PhD student in UT Austin's Government Department. His research interests lie at the intersection of energy, commodities, alongside the enabling legal and financial instruments. Previously, he worked as an attorney on a range of issues including voting rights, civil rights, and immigration detention at a nonprofit organization. He holds a B.A. from Grinnell College and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law.
