Prof. Dr. Calestous Juma

Prof Juma is currently a Senior Research Fellow at the Belfer Centre for Science and International Affairs as well as the Director of the Science, technology and Innovation Program at the Centre for International Development at Harvard University. He is also visiting professor at the University of Strathclyde in the United Kingdom; member of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences; member of the US National Research Council's Board on Agriculture and natural Resources and associate editor of the International Journal of Biotechnology.

With a distinguished career holding several positions in international organizations and receiving several international awards for his work, Prof Juma's research interests include evolutionary systems theory; science and technology policy studies; institutional change; biotechnology and biological diversity; and international environmental policy. He has also written widely on issues of science, technology and the environment. He recently was elected as a chancellor of the National Academy of Guayana. The other former chancellors were Edgar Mortimer Duke, a Guyanese; Sir Arthur Lewis, a St Lucian; De William Demas, a Trinidadian; and Sir Shridath Ramphal, a Guyanese.

Calestous Juma is former Executive Secretary of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity secretariat. He is former Executive Director of the African Centre for Technology Studies in Nairobi (Kenya) which he founded in 1988. He is Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts (UK) and Member of the Kenya National Academy of Sciences. He directed the International Diffusion of Biotechnology Programme of the International Federation of Institutes of Advanced Study and was senior research fellow of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research.

He was a member of the Gulbenkian Commission on the Restructuring of the Social Sciences and several other international initiatives. He serves or has served on the governing and advisory bodies of several international organizations including World Resources Institute (WRI), United Nations University's Institute for New Technologies, Center for International Environmental Law and Earthwatch Institute. He has consulted for, among others, the World Bank, United Nations Development Program, United Nations Environment Program, World Intellectual Property Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, United Nations Industrial Development Organization, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development and International Development Research Centre.

He holds a PhD in Science and Technology Policy Studies from the Science Policy Research Unit at the University of Sussex (UK). He has won several awards, including the 1991 Pew Scholars Award in conservation and the Environment and the 1993 United Nations Global 500 Award. His research interests include: science and technology studies; biotechnology, biological diversity and public policy; and international trade and environmental policy. He is currently working on a book on biotechnology and comparative public policy.