Francisco Sagasti is an affiliated researcher at the Institute of Peruvian Studies and professor at the Universidad del Pacífico. He has been President of the Republic, Congressman, Head of Strategic Planning at the World Bank, President of the UN Council on Science and Technology, and professor at the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid, the Universidad para la Paz in Costa Rica, and the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. He has been an advisor and board member of numerous international organisations, public institutions, private companies and civil society organisations in Peru and abroad. He holds a degree in industrial engineering from the National University of Engineering, a master’s degree in industrial engineering from Penn State University, and a PhD in operations research and social systems science from the University of Pennsylvania. 

He is the author of over thirty books and more than 200 academic articles. He has been a member of the editorial board of the journals Foresight, El Trimestre Económico, World Development and Technological Forecasting and Social Change, and a contributor to CARETAS magazine in Peru. 

In 2017 he received the Robert K. Merton Award from the International Sociological Association for his academic and professional career, and previously received the Paul Hoffman Award, created in memory of the administrator of the Marshall Plan, and first director of the United Nations Development Programme.