Ari Lampinen is Associate Professor in Renewable Energy at Strömstad Academy since 31 March 2009. He was born in 1962 in Jyväskylä, Finland. He received BSc (1986), MSc (1987) and PhLic (1992) degrees in physics at University of Jyväskylä. He worked at Department of Physics of University of Jyväskylä as researcher in 1986-1988 and as Assistant Professor (assistentti) in 1991-1996. He did his MSc thesis at Niels Bohr Institute at Risø in Denmark in 1986-1987 and PhLic thesis at Stanford University in the USA in 1991-1992. He was Research Associate (tutkimusassistentti) at Academy of Finland in 1988-1991. All this work was in the fields of experimental nuclear physics and computer science.

He first became exposed to renewable energy technologies while working in 1986-1987 at Risø, the location of the largest wind energy research facility in the world. While working in California in 1991-1992 he became further aware of many practical renewable energy solutions to climate change and many other acute environmental problems. He started teaching and development work in those fields in 1994. He pursued those fields as Associate Professor (yliassistentti) of Air Pollution Control Technology in 1998-2001 and Associate Professor of Environmental Physics in 2001-2006 at Department of Biological and Environmental Science of University of Jyväskylä.

He initiated and co-founded renewable energy education network SOLIS (SOLar energy In Schools) of Finnish high schools, which was started in 1997 as a project of Finnish Physical Society and National Board of Education in co-operation with Norwegian high schools. He initiated and co-founded a multidisciplinary Renewable Energy Education and Research Programme of University of Jyväskylä, which started in 2003. His renewable energy work has included writing more than 170 publications and more than 140 expert opinions/statements, supervising over 40 university theses, participating in United Nations negotiations, giving over 200 invited presentations and lecturing courses in several universities. He has been involved in many renewable energy projects of scientific, environmental, municipal, governmental and intergovernmental organizations as well as companies, both in Finland and developing countries. His renewable energy work started with solar energy and has later covered most renewable energy technologies, not only from the point of view of natural sciences and engineering, but also utilizing disciplines of sociology, political science, economics, education and law. For the past several years his main focus has been in renewable energy use in traffic and non-technical barriers of renewable energy utilization.