Dr Vandana Shiva trained as a physicist and has also carried out inter-disciplinary research in science, technology and environmental policy. She founded the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and the national movement to protect the diversity and integrity of living resources, Navdanya. She also founded Bija Vidyapeeth, an international college for sustainable living.

Dr Shiva has been identified by Time as an environmental 'hero', by Asia Week as one of the five most powerful communicators of Asia and by Forbes magazine as one of the top Seven most Powerful Women on the Globe. She has been awarded honorary Doctorates by the Universities of Paris, Western Ontario, Oslo and Guelph.

Among her many awards are the Alternative Nobel Prize (Right Livelihood Award, 1993), Order of the Golden Ark, Global 500 Award of UN and Earth Day International Award, the Lennon ONO grant for peace award in 2009, the Sydney Peace Prize in 2010, the Doshi Bridgebuilder Award, Calgary Peace Prize and Thomas Merton Award in 2011, the Fukuoka Award and The Prism of Reason Award in 2012, the Grifone d’Argento prize and the MIDORI Prize for Biodiversity in 2016, the Veerangana Award 2018, the Sanctuary Wildlife Award 2018, the International Environment Summit & Award 2018 and the Amrita Devi Award 2021.