Steven Buchsbaum leads the Grand Challenge family of grant programs and other experiments in sourcing innovation and development of the discovery ecosystem.

Prior to joining the foundation in 2005, he served as the founding director of the Office of Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and Explosive Defense in the Homeland Security Advance Research Projects Agency of the Department of Homeland Security. He has also held positions as a program manager in the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and in the U.S. State Department as the science and technology officer for South Asia. Prior to federal service, he held positions at the Marine Physical Laboratory of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography; the Institute for Nonlinear Science at University of California, San Diego; the University of California, Santa Cruz; the Center for Material Science at Los Alamos National Laboratory; the Science Applications International Corporation; Bermuda Associates; and Draper Laboratory.

Steven received a Ph.D. in Physics and a Master of Pacific International Affairs from the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies at the University of California, San Diego.