Brown, Lester

Brown, Lester (1934–  ) environmentalist, author; born in Bridgeton, N.J. Educated at Rutgers and Harvard (M.A. 1962), he joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 1959 as a specialist in food, population, and the environment. He became director of the newly established Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C., in 1974. Under the auspices of Worldwatch he lectured and wrote widely on environmental concerns, and the reports issued by the institute have become among the most highly regarded and cited in the field of threats to the environment. His publications include Building a Sustainable Society (1981) and Saving the Planet (1991).