莱斯特·R·布朗被《华盛顿邮报》誉为“世界上最有影响的一位思想家”。印度加尔各答《电讯报》称他为“环境运动的宗师”。布朗1934年3月28日出生于美国新泽西州。在中学和大学时期，和弟弟开始经营西红柿农场。1955年从拉特格斯大学获得农业科学学士学位后不久，到印度农村生活了6个月。1959年，就职于美国农业部国际农业局。

布朗曾获得马里兰大学农业经济硕士学位（1959年）和哈佛大学公共管理硕士学位（1962年）。1964年，他成为美国农业部部长奥维尔?弗里曼的国际农业政策顾问。1966年，开始担任国际农业发展处主任。1969年初，他离开农业部，协助建立海外发展理事会。

1974年，布朗创办了从事全球环境问题分析的世界观察研究所。25年前，他率先提出环境上可持续发展的概念，并用于他所架构的生态经济。他作为世界观察研究所的创办者和前任所长而闻名。他于1984年创刊的《世界现状》年度报告，目前已经有30多种文字的版本。被誉为全球环境运动的《圣经》。1988年，他又创办了《世界观察》双月刊，发表世界观察研究所的研究文章。

1971年，世界观察研究所以布朗等著的《拯救地球：如何形成环境上可持续的全球经济》一书领头，开始出版“环境警示丛书”。1992年，他创办了一种新的年度报告：《重要征象：塑造未来的趋势》。他的早期著作，主要有《人、土地和粮食》（1963），《增加世界粮食产量》（1965），《变化的苗头》（1970），《没有疆界的世界》（1972），《为了人类的利益》（1974），《仅仅是面包》（与他人合作，1974，获克里斯托弗奖），《第二十九天》（1978，获Ecologia Firenze奖），《凭空跃进（Running on Empty）》（与他人合作，1979），《建立可持续发展的社会》（1981），《人满为患》（与他人合作，1994），《谁将供应中国粮食？》（1995）《面临全球粮食短缺挑战的艰难抉择》（1996），《超越马尔萨斯：人口挑战的十九个方面》（与他人合作，1999）等。

他于2001年5月创办地球政策研究所并担任所长。11月，出版了《生态经济：有利于地球的经济构想》，哈佛大学教授、两次普利策奖得主威尔逊称赞此书“一出版就成为经典”。布朗于2003年又推出一本力作——《B模式：拯救地球 延续文明》。

地球政策研究所是非营利性的跨学科研究组织，其宗旨是提供环境上可持续发展的经济——生态经济的构想，从目前经济模式转向生态经济的途径，并且不断地对我们是否朝着这个方向发展进行评估。

他获得了国内和国外的22个荣誉学位，著作或与他人合著有47本书、19种专论和不计其数的文章。他是美国麦克阿瑟天才学术奖的获得者，并且获得其他许多奖金和奖章，其中包括1997年的联合国环境奖，1989年的世界自然基金会金奖， 1994年的日本蓝色星球奖。在马奎斯：《名人录》（Who’s Who）发行第15版之际，莱斯特?布朗被选为50位杰出美国人之一。

DETAILED BIOGRAPHY OF LESTER R. BROWN

The Washington Post called Lester Brown "one of the world's most influential thinkers." The Telegraph of Calcutta refers to him as "the guru of the environmental movement." In 1986, the Library of Congress requested his personal papers noting that his writings "have already strongly affected thinking about problems of world population and resources."

Brown started his career as a farmer, growing tomatoes in southern New Jersey with his younger brother during high school and college. Shortly after earning a degree in agricultural science from Rutgers University in 1955, he spent six months living in rural India where he became intimately familiar with the food/population issue. In 1959 Brown joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agricultural Service as an international agricultural analyst.

Brown earned masters degrees in agricultural economics from the University of Maryland and in public administration from Harvard. In 1964, he became an adviser to Secretary of Agriculture Orville Freeman on foreign agricultural policy. In 1966, the Secretary appointed him Administrator of the department's International Agricultural Development Service. In early 1969, he left government to help establish the Overseas Development Council.

In 1974, with support of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Lester Brown founded the Worldwatch Institute, the first research institute devoted to the analysis of global environmental issues. While there he launched the Worldwatch Papers, the annual State of the World reports, World Watch magazine, a second annual entitled Vital Signs: The Trends That are Shaping Our Future, and the Environmental Alert book series.

Brown has authored or coauthored 49 books. One of the world's most widely published authors, his books have appeared in some 40 languages. Among his earlier books are Man, Land and Food, World Without Borders, and Building a Sustainable Society. His 1995 book Who Will Feed China? challenged the official view of China's food prospect, spawning hundreds of conferences and seminars.

In May 2001, he founded the Earth Policy Institute to provide a vision and a road map for achieving an environmentally sustainable economy. In November 2001, he published Eco-Economy: Building an Economy for the Earth, which was hailed by E.O. Wilson as "an instant classic." He followed this in 2003 with another path-breaking book, Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble.

He is the recipient of many prizes and awards, including more than 20 honorary degrees, a MacArthur Fellowship, 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 2003, he was awarded the Presidential Medal of Italy and appointed an honorary professor at the University of Shanghai.