Sir Steven Cowley is a theoretical physicist and international authority on fusion energy. He’s laboratory director of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, which is managed by Princeton University where Cowley is also professor of astrophysical sciences. He's also chair of the Board of Trustees for the Faraday Institution.

Prior to his current positions, Cowley was president of Corpus Christi College and professor of physics at the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Cowley previously was chief executive officer of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority and head of the Culham Centre for Fusion Energy.