Africa, world mourn death of renowned Harvard professor Calestous Juma

World-renowned Kenyan author and professor Calestous Juma has died on Friday, December 15, 2017 in Boston at the age of 64.

Kenya’s foreign affairs minister Amina Mohamed was among the many high-profiled personalities to confirm his death on Friday afternoon.

“I have received the news of the passing on of my friend, compatriot and a role model Professor Calestous Juma, with a deep sense of great personal loss. May his soul rest in eternal peace,” she tweeted.

Calestous Juma was a professor of the Practice of International Development and Director of the Science, Technology, and Globalization Project at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard Kennedy School.

He served as Faculty Chair of the Edward S. Mason Fellows Program as well as Faculty Chair of the “Innovation for Economic Development” and “Technology, Innovation and Entrepreneurship in Africa” executive programmes before his death.

Juma occupied several international capacities and worked on several boards including the African Union’s High-Level Panel on Science, Technology and Innovation, Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation, Africa Food Prize, Royal Society of London, the US National Academy of Sciences, the World Academy of Sciences, the UK Royal Academy of Engineering and the African Academy of Sciences.

He won several international awards for his work on sustainable development. He has dozens of publications in his name including a book titled: A New Culture of Innovation: Technology, Entrepreneurship and Prosperity, which he was working on before his demise.

His latest book: Innovation and Its Enemies: Why People Resist New Technologies, was published by Oxford University Press in 2016.

Calestous Juma died a week after his mother was buried. The cause of death is unknown. He is survived by a wife and a son, both living in Boston.

Below are tributes to the illustrious professor who had Africa at heart.