Ramez Naam

Ramez Naam is a computer scientist, energy futurist, startup investor, and award-winning author of five books, widely recognized as a leading voice on exponential technology, clean energy, and innovation. A founding faculty member and former Co-Chair for Energy and Environment at Singularity University, Ramez has spent decades at the intersection of technology and sustainability. His groundbreaking 2011 Scientific American article, "Smaller, Cheaper, Faster," was among the first to identify the exponential decline in solar energy costs, a prediction that has since proven transformative for the global energy landscape. He has continued to track and analyze exponential trends in wind power, energy storage, and electric vehicles, establishing himself as one of the most trusted energy analysts in the world. Through his venture firm Planetary VC, Ramez actively invests in startups across energy, sustainability, and AI, while also serving as a strategic advisor to multiple Fortune 500 companies in energy and transportation and as a former board member of cleantech investing group E8 Angels. Prior to his work in energy, Ramez spent 13 years at Microsoft leading teams across email, web browsing, cloud computing, search, and AI, accumulating more than 20 patents in information retrieval and machine learning, several co-authored with Bill Gates. His insights have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Wired, and Scientific American, and he has delivered keynotes to corporate, government, and nonprofit audiences across six continents.