Lester R. Brown is President of Earth Policy Institute, a nonprofit, interdisciplinary research organization based in Washington, D.C., which he founded in May 2001. The purpose of the Earth Policy Institute is to provide a plan for building a sustainable future and a roadmap of how to get from here to there.
Brown has been described as “one of the world’s most influential thinkers” by the Washington Post. The Telegraph of Calcutta called him “the guru of the environmental movement.” In 1986, the Library of Congress requested his papers for their archives.
Some 30 years ago, Brown helped pioneer the concept of sustainable development, a concept he uses in his design of an eco-economy. He was the Founder and President of the Worldwatch Institute during its first 26 years. During a career that started with tomato farming, Brown has authored or coauthored over 50 books and been awarded 24 honorary degrees. His books have appeared in more than 40 languages.
Brown is a MacArthur Fellow and the recipient of countless prizes and awards, including the 1987 United Nations Environment Prize, the 1989 World Wide Fund for Nature Gold Medal, and the 1994 Blue Planet Prize for his “exceptional contributions to solving global environmental problems.” In 1995, Marquis Who’s Who, on the occasion of its fiftieth edition, selected Lester Brown as one of 50 Great Americans. Most recently he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Italy and the Borgström Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, and he was appointed an honorary professor of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He lives in Washington, D.C.