Born in Reykjavik 1951, Mr Johannesson finished his MSc in Engineering Physics in 1976, his PhD thesis on thermal models for buildings in 1981 and was appointed as an associate professor at Lund University in 1982. He was awarded the title of doctor honoris causae from the University of Debrecen in 2008 and the Swedish Concrete Award in 2011. From 1975 he worked as a research assistant at Lund University, from 1982 as a consultant in research and building physics in Reykjavik and from 1990 as a professor in Building Technology at KTH in Stockholm. His research has mainly concerned the thermodynamical studies of buildings, innovative building systems and energy conservation in the built environment. Since the beginning of 2008 he has been the Director General of the Icelandic National Energy Authority which is responsible for public adminstration of energy research, energy utilisation and regulation. At present he is also an affiliated professor at KTH, the chair of IPGT the international Partnership for Geothermal Technology and the leading person for Geothermal ERANET a European project for coordinating funding geothermal research and knowledge base in European countries.