Physicist Amory Lovins is co-founder and chair emeritus of RMI (founded as Rocky Mountain Institute); author of 31 books and 900 papers; an integrative designer of super-efficient buildings, vehicles, and factories; and a half-century advisor to major firms and governments worldwide on advanced energy efficiency and strategy. He received the Blue Planet, Volvo, Zayed, Onassis, Nissan, Shingo, and Mitchell prizes; MacArthur and Ashoka fellowships; 12 honorary doctorates; the Heinz, Lindbergh, Right Livelihood, National Design, and World Technology awards; and Germany's Officer's Cross of the Order of Merit.

A Harvard and Oxford dropout, former Oxford don, honorary US architect, Swedish engineering academician, and 2011–18 member of the National Petroleum Council, he has taught at 10 universities and is currently adjunct professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford. In 2009, Time named him one of the world's 100 most influential people, and Foreign Policy, one of the 100 top global thinkers. Stanford's citation analysis lists him among the top 2% of the world's scientists.