Steve Whittaker is Director of Energy & Minerals, Illinois State Geological Survey, at the University of Illinois and leads a team researching carbon capture and storage, critical mineral resources, blue hydrogen, energy storage, and carbon utilization. Steve is Principal Investigator of the Illinois Storage Corridor project that will develop Class VI permits for two commercial CCS projects and is PI and Co-PI of two CarbonSAFE projects designed to lead to commercial deployment of CCS. Previously he was based in Australia where he was a Group Leader in the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), Global Storage Manager with the Global CCS Institute, and in Canada as Chief Technology Manager at the Petroleum Technology Research Centre where he led a large project on carbon storage associated with CO2-EOR. He previously worked as an exploration geologist in western Canada. Steve has a PhD from the University of Saskatchewan and Post-Doctoral Fellowships at Queen’s University and McGill University.