Calestous Juma is Director of the Science, Technology and Innovation Program at the Center for International Development at Harvard University and a Research Fellow at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University.

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 Visiting Professor at the University of Strathclyde (UK), Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences 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, and Center for International Environmental Law and Earthwatch Institute. He has consulted for, among others, the World Bank, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations Environment Programme, World Intellectual Property Organization, Food and Agriculture Organisation, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, United Nations Industrial Development Organisation, 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.

His earlier works include Long-Run Economics: An Evolutionary Approach to Economic Growth (1987); The Gene Hunters: Biotechnology and the Scramble for Seeds (1989); Biodiplomacy: Genetic Resources and International Relations (1994); Coming to Life: Biotechnology in African Economic Recovery (1994) and In Land We Trust: Private Property, Environment and Constitutional Change (1996).