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James Canton (born April 29, 1951) is a futurist, author, CEO & Chairman of the Institute for Global Futures. He forecasts future global trends in technology, health care, population, science, climate, workforce and security. He is the developer of Trend Trakker, a systems-approach to geospatial data mining and forecasting that identifies trends, innovations and global risks. Dr. Canton received his Ph.D. in social science from the Union Institute & University in 1982. His thesis was on Global Systems and Organizations. He was a student of Alvin Toffler in New York City, where he was born.

He worked with Toffler at the Anticipatory Democracy Network. He was Executive Director of the Health Policy Council, a health policy think tank he founded and lead from 1976-79, while serving as an adviser to the United States Department of Health and Human Services on health policy and strategic planning. He was a Business and Strategic Planning Executive at Apple Computer, Inc., in 1983, where he worked on the introduction of the first Macintosh Computer and next generation computing applications for business and science. In 1990, he founded the Institute for Global Futures, a San Francisco based think tank that forecasts innovations and trends for companies and governments. He has advised three White House administrations, the National Science Foundation, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Science and Technology Council.

As a thought leader, James Canton participated in the early projects to identify the social and business impact on nanoscience, nanoengineering and nanotechnology in his work with the National Science Foundation in the National Nanotechnology Initiative in 2003. He was the first private sector advisor to the National Science Foundation on nanoscience, nanoengineering and nanotechnology. He served on the advisory board of MIT’s Media Lab Europe where he advised on the futures research projects involving emerging technologies. He is a Senior Fellow at the Kellogg School of Management Center for Research in Innovation, and serves on the Economic Development Board, State of Singapore where he advises government leaders on future trends in innovation and society. Dr. Canton is also serves on the Corporate Eco-Forum Advisory Board where he advises on global business strategy and future trends affecting commerce and sustainability.

He serves as Co-Chairman of the Futures and Forecasting Track for NASA and Google sponsored Singularity University where he teaches students from around the world on the convergence and impact of accelerating technologies and future trends affecting population, energy, climate, security and health care. He is the founder of FutureLab, a traveling virtual and real-world showcase on innovation and advanced technologies that visits high schools teaching youth about the future of science. Dr. Canton is author of the books Technofutures and The Extreme Future. CNN dubbed him “the Digital Guru” and Yahoo named him “Dr. Future”. Mike Wallace of CBS’s 60 Minutes profiled, him as “one of the world’s greatest minds” in his book, 50 Years From Today, Thomas Nelson, 2008.

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