Founder, African Centre for Technology Studies
Born: Port Victoria, Kenya, 1953
PhD: University of Sussex, UK (Science policy), 1987
Centre founded: Kenya, 1988
Current job: Professor of international development at Harvard University
What was the best advice you were given?
I went to see Maurice Strong (founding Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme) and told him that I wanted to start small and scale-up later. He told me that things that start small always stay that way. &x201C;Don't be afraid of having a big vision,&x201D; he said.
Would you do it all again?
I am in the process of creating a college in my home-town of Lake Victoria. The idea is to use the best available knowledge to create sustainable-development solutions for the area's people and ecology. I am too old to run it, but will act as a mentor to whoever takes it on.
