Biography

Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran is an award-winning correspondent for The Economist.

He joined the magazine's staff as the London-based Latin America Correspondent in 1992. He opened its first office in that region in Mexico City, and served as bureau chief until 1997. As the newspaper's Global Environment & Energy Correspondent, he covered the politics, economics, business and technology involved in those topics from 1998 to 2006. His portfolio now includes global health, pharmaceuticals and innovation.

Vijay is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and serves on the selection committee for CFR's annual Arthur Ross Book Award. He teaches at NYU's Stern Business School, and is a regular commentator onMarketplace radio, in the Wall Street Journal and at other media outlets.

He is also the author of a book on the future of energy, "POWER TO THE PEOPLE ". Harvard's John Holdren, reviewing the book in Scientific American , called it " by far the most helpful, entertaining, up-to-date and accessible treatment of the energy-economy-environment problematique available." Vijay's next book, "ZOOM: The Race to Fuel the Car of the Future" , co-authored withEconomist colleague Iain Carson, will be published in autumn 2007.

Vijay's book and magazine articles have received various prizes in America and abroad. He holds a degree in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was born in Madras, India, and grew up in Cheshire, Connecticut. He now lives in New York.