Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs
October 19, 2016
The Breakthrough Institute has named Calestous Juma the recipient of the 2017 Breakthrough Paradigm Award. The award, given annually, recognizes accomplishment and leadership in the effort to make the future secure, free, prosperous, and fulfilling for all the world’s inhabitants on an ecologically vibrant planet.
Juma is Professor of the Practice of International Development at Harvard Kennedy School (HKS) and Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He was chosen in recognition of his scholarship and thought leadership in biotechnology and innovation.
Of all global impacts on the environment, none has a bigger footprint than food and agriculture, and few scholars are better prepared to discuss and advise our agricultural future. With his acclaimed 2011 book, The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa, Juma offered an essential and refreshing look at agriculture in emerging economies. Technology, entrepreneurship, and emerging regional markets, he wrote, would combine to create an economic, social, and environmental revolution in sub-Saharan Africa.
This year, Oxford University Press published Juma’s new book, Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies, which chronicles 600 years of case studies on emerging technologies and the social resistance they ignite. Those familiar with modern discussions around nuclear power, transgenic crops, vaccines, and other controversial technologies have likely experienced frustration with what can seem at times to be regressive opposition to new technologies. But what is fascinating about Juma’s new book is the respect, curiosity, and skill with which he diagnoses these social tensions.
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Food-Matters
Global Climate Change
Environment Ethics
Environment Justice
Transition Studies 