Varun Sivaram is senior advisor to the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, John F. Kerry. A physicist, bestselling author, and clean energy technology expert, his experience spans the corporate, public, and academic sectors.

He has previously served as Chief Technology Officer of ReNew Power, a multibillion-dollar renewable-energy firm that is India’s largest, senior research scholar at Columbia University’s SIPA Center on Global Energy Policy, director of the energy & climate program at the Council on Foreign Relations, senior energy advisor to the Los Angeles Mayor and New York Governor, professor at Georgetown University, director at Peridot Acquisition Corp. (NYSE: PDAC), and consultant at McKinsey & Co. He has served as a board member for Stanford University’s energy and environment institutes, as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council for the Energy Transition, and as one of the 25 advisors to the UN COP26 climate conference in 2021.

His books include “Taming the Sun”—recognized as the authoritative guide to the unfolding solar energy revolution—”Energizing America,” and “Digital Decarbonization.” TIME Magazine named him one of its TIME 100 Next hundred most influential people in the world. A Rhodes and Truman scholar, he holds a Ph.D. in condensed matter physics from Oxford University and undergraduate degrees from Stanford University.