The Common Wealth Awards of Distinguished Service (or Common Wealth Awards) were created under the will of the late Ralph Hayes, an influential American business executive and philanthropist. Hayes conceived the awards to reward and encourage the best of human performance worldwide. Hayes served on the board of directors of PNC Bank, Delaware

Delaware

Delaware is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It is bordered to the south and west by Maryland, and to the north by Pennsylvania...

's predecessor banks from 1935 to 1965. Through the Common Wealth Awards, he sought to recognize outstanding achievement in eight disciplines: dramatic arts, literature

Literature

Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...

, science

Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

, invention

Invention

An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...

, mass communications, public service

Public services

Public services is a term usually used to mean services provided by government to its citizens, either directly or by financing private provision of services. The term is associated with a social consensus that certain services should be available to all, regardless of income...

, government

Government

Government refers to the legislators, administrators, and arbitrators in the administrative bureaucracy who control a state at a given time, and to the system of government by which they are organized...

 and sociology

Sociology

Sociology is the study of society. It is a social science—a term with which it is sometimes synonymous—which uses various methods of empirical investigation and critical analysis to develop a body of knowledge about human social activity...

. The awards also provide an incentive for people to make future contributions to the world community.

Ralph Hayes

Demonstrating unusual academic ability in his youth, Ralph Hayes developed into a gifted executive whose career would take him to the Office of the United States Secretary of War

United States Secretary of War

The Secretary of War was a member of the United States President's Cabinet, beginning with George Washington's administration. A similar position, called either "Secretary at War" or "Secretary of War," was appointed to serve the Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation...

 in Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C.

Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

, into the motion picture industry, publishing and banking and to the top echelons of the Coca-Cola Company. For 35 years, he was a Coca-Cola executive, serving as secretary-treasurer, vice president, and as a director of Coca-Cola International. He served on the board of directors of the Bank of Delaware (now PNC Bank) from 1943 to 1965, having previously served as a Director of its predecessor, The Equitable Trust Company, from 1935 to 1943. Hayes also had a long and distinguished career of public service. He was a chairman of the James Foundation, president of Community Funds, Inc., and a longtime director of the New York Community Trust

New York Community Trust

The New York Community Trust was founded in 1924 to distribute the income from charitable funds established by will to improve the quality of life in New York City. It also offers services to living donors. It is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the United States, and...

. Service to his fellow man was always uppermost in Ralph Hayes' mind. He died in 1977 at the age of 82, leaving the Common Wealth Awards as but one part of his charitable legacy.

Prize and ceremony

Each recipient of the Common Wealth Award receives a $50,000 prize. It is presented at an annual, invitation-only, black-tie

Black tie

Black tie is a dress code for evening events and social functions. For a man, the main component is a usually black jacket, known as a dinner jacket or tuxedo...

 dinner hosted at the Hotel DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington, Delaware

Wilmington is the largest city in the state of Delaware, United States, and is located at the confluence of the Christina River and Brandywine Creek, near where the Christina flows into the Delaware River. It is the county seat of New Castle County and one of the major cities in the Delaware Valley...

.

In their 32-year history, the Common Wealth Awards have conferred $5 million in prize money to 177 honorees of international renown. The awards are funded by the Common Wealth Trust.

Common Wealth Award Writing Contest

Since 2000, more than twenty lucky Delaware high school students have met and talked to the winning world leaders through the Common Wealth Award Writing Contest. Four winners of the writing contest and their parents or guardians are invited each year to the Common Wealth Awards ceremony, where the honorees are recognized for their lifetime achievement. As time allows, students are often able to talk directly with the winners.

Contest winners are publicly acknowledged at the Common Wealth Awards ceremony and receive a framed picture of themselves taken with the honorees. The winners for 2011 were John Fairchild, a senior at Wilmington Friends School

Wilmington Friends School

Wilmington Friends School, the oldest existing school in Delaware, is a preschool through 12th grade Quaker school in Wilmington, Delaware. The school was founded in 1748 by members of the Wilmington Monthly Meeting of Friends ....

; Lisa Jacques, a junior at St. Andrew's School; Faith Lyons, a junior at Tower Hill School

Tower Hill School

Tower Hill School is a private, college preparatory school located at 2813 West 17th Street in Wilmington, Delaware, offering instruction for pre-school through 12th grade. The school was founded in 1919 on the basis of commitment to progressive education methods. It has an excellent academic...

; and Brianne Sands, a junior at Cab Calloway School of the Arts

Cab Calloway School of the Arts

The Cab Calloway School of the Arts is an arts-oriented magnet school in Wilmington, Delaware, operated by the Red Clay Consolidated School District, that focuses on a strong academic curriculum along with an education in the arts. It is a public school, but children are required to audition within...

.

List of honorees

Year	Honoree	Discipline	Claim to Fame
1979	Lord Laurence Olivier Laurence Olivier Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...	Dramatic Arts	British actor and founding director of the British National Theatre.
	Joseph Papp Joseph Papp Joseph Papp was an American theatrical producer and director. Papp established The Public Theater in what had been the Astor Library Building in downtown New York . "The Public," as it is known, has many small theatres within it...	Dramatic Arts	Influential American theatrical director and producer.
	Jay W. Forrester	Science & Invention	Prominent scientist who made outstanding contributions to digital computer technology.
	Charles J. Plank	Science & Invention	Chemist and inventor credited with inventing the first commercially applicable apparatus for the breaking of hydrocarbons.
	Edward J. Rosinski	Science & Invention	Chemical engineer and inventor credited with making significant breakthroughs in the technology of hydrocarbon conversions.
	Kingsley Davis Kingsley Davis Kingsley Davis , identified by the American Philosophical Society as one of the most outstanding social scientists of the twentieth century, was a Hoover Institution senior research fellow and internationally recognized American sociologist and demographer...	Sociology	American sociologist and demographer who coined the terms population explosion and zero population growth Zero population growth Zero population growth, sometimes abbreviated ZPG , is a condition of demographic balance where the number of people in a specified population neither grows nor declines, considered as a social aim.... .
	Robert Merton Robert K. Merton Robert King Merton was a distinguished American sociologist. He spent most of his career teaching at Columbia University, where he attained the rank of University Professor...	Sociology	Influential sociologist recognized for coining terms such as, self-fulfilling prophecy Self-fulfilling prophecy A self-fulfilling prophecy is a prediction that directly or indirectly causes itself to become true, by the very terms of the prophecy itself, due to positive feedback between belief and behavior. Although examples of such prophecies can be found in literature as far back as ancient Greece and...  and role model Role model The term role model generally means any "person who serves as an example, whose behaviour is emulated by others".The term first appeared in Robert K. Merton's socialization research of medical students... s.
1980	Peter Brook Peter Brook Peter Stephen Paul Brook CH, CBE is an English theatre and film director and innovator, who has been based in France since the early 1970s.-Life:...	Dramatic Arts
	Agnes de Mille Agnes de Mille Agnes George de Mille was an American dancer and choreographer.-Early years:Agnes de Mille was born in New York City into a well-connected family of theater professionals. Her father William C. deMille and her uncle Cecil B. DeMille were both Hollywood directors...	Dramatic Arts	Famed American dancer and choreographer.
	Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel García Márquez Gabriel José de la Concordia García Márquez is a Colombian novelist, short-story writer, screenwriter and journalist, known affectionately as Gabo throughout Latin America. He is considered one of the most significant authors of the 20th century. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in...	Literature	Nobel Prize Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895... -winning author and a pioneer of the Latin American Boom Latin American Boom The Latin American Boom was a literary movement of the 1960s and 1970s when the work of a group of relatively young Latin American novelists became widely circulated in Europe and throughout the world... .
	Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the influential literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935...	Literature	American poet, novelist, and literary critic; cofounder of New Criticism New Criticism New Criticism was a movement in literary theory that dominated American literary criticism in the middle decades of the 20th century. It emphasized close reading, particularly of poetry, to discover how a work of literature functioned as a self-contained, self-referential aesthetic... .
	Clair McCollough	Mass Communications	Radio and television executive, as well as longtime officer of the National Association of Broadcasters National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association, workers union, and lobby group representing the interests of for-profit, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States...
	Lowell Thomas Lowell Thomas Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous...	Mass Communications	American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known for the creation of Lawrence of Arabia.
	James Hillier James Hillier James Hillier, was a Canadian-born scientist and inventor who designed and built, with Albert Prebus, the first successful high-resolution electron microscope in North America in 1938....	Science & Invention	Physicist and inventor who assisted in the development of an early, commercially successful electron microscope Electron microscope An electron microscope is a type of microscope that uses a beam of electrons to illuminate the specimen and produce a magnified image. Electron microscopes have a greater resolving power than a light-powered optical microscope, because electrons have wavelengths about 100,000 times shorter than...  for RCA RCA RCA Corporation, founded as the Radio Corporation of America, was an American electronics company in existence from 1919 to 1986. The RCA trademark is currently owned by the French conglomerate Technicolor SA through RCA Trademark Management S.A., a company owned by Technicolor... .
	Lewis H. Sarett Lewis Hastings Sarett Lewis Hastings Sarett was an American organic chemist. He was born in Champaign, Illinois. Live in Laona, Wisconsin for a time. Attended high school in Highland Park, Illinois . He received a Bachelor of Science from Northwestern University in 1939 and his doctorate from Princeton University...	Science & Invention
	James Coleman	Sociology
	Otis Duncan Otis Dudley Duncan Otis Dudley Duncan was "the most important quantitative sociologist in the world in the latter half of the 20th century", according to sociologist Leo Goodman...	Sociology	One of the most influential sociologists in history, instrumental in transforming mainstream American sociology.
1981	Harold Pinter Harold Pinter Harold Pinter, CH, CBE was a Nobel Prize–winning English playwright and screenwriter. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party , The Homecoming , and Betrayal , each of which he adapted to...	Dramatic Arts
	Tennessee Williams Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier "Tennessee" Williams III was an American writer who worked principally as a playwright in the American theater. He also wrote short stories, novels, poetry, essays, screenplays and a volume of memoirs...	Dramatic Arts	Major American playwright of the twentieth century.
	Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer Nadine Gordimer is a South African writer and political activist. She was awarded the 1991 Nobel Prize in Literature when she was recognised as a woman "who through her magnificent epic writing has – in the words of Alfred Nobel – been of very great benefit to humanity".Her writing has long dealt...  South Africa	Literature
	Milan Kundera Milan Kundera Milan Kundera , born 1 April 1929, is a writer of Czech origin who has lived in exile in France since 1975, where he became a naturalized citizen in 1981. He is best known as the author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, and The Joke. Kundera has written in...	Literature
	Walter Cronkite Walter Cronkite Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. was an American broadcast journalist, best known as anchorman for the CBS Evening News for 19 years . During the heyday of CBS News in the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll...	Mass Communications
	Julian Goodman Julian Goodman Julian Goodman is a former president of the National Broadcasting Company . His hometown was Glasgow, Kentucky.His work landed him on the master list of Nixon political opponents.-References:...	Mass Communications
	Howard S. Becker Howard S. Becker Howard Saul Becker is an American sociologist who made major contributions to the sociology of deviance, sociology of art, and sociology of music. Becker also wrote extensively on sociological writing styles and methodologies. In addition, Becker's book The Outsiders provided the foundations for...	Sociology
	Peter Blau Peter Blau Peter Michael Blau was an American sociologist and theorist. Born in Vienna, Austria, he immigrated to the United States in 1939. He received his PhD at Columbia University in 1952, and was an instructor at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan from 1949–1951, before moving on to teach...	Sociology
1982	Harold Prince	Dramatic Arts	Award-winning producer and director; co-artistic director of the New Phoenix Repertory Company.
	Wright Morris Wright Morris Wright Marion Morris was an American novelist, photographer, and essayist. He is known for his portrayals of the people and artifacts of the Great Plains in words and pictures, as well as for experimenting with narrative forms. Wright Morris died April 25, 1998 at the age of 88 years. He is...	Literature	American novelist, short-story writer, essayist, and photographer.
	Vincent Wasileski	Mass Communications	President of the National Association of Broadcasters National Association of Broadcasters The National Association of Broadcasters is a trade association, workers union, and lobby group representing the interests of for-profit, over-the-air radio and television broadcasters in the United States...  (NAB).
	Bell Laboratories	Science & Invention	Credited with the discovery of the Fractional quantum Hall effect Fractional quantum Hall effect The fractional quantum Hall effect is a physical phenomenon in which the Hall conductance of 2D electrons shows precisely quantised plateaus at fractional values of e^2/h. It is a property of a collective state in which electrons bind magnetic flux lines to make new quasiparticles, and excitations...  (FQHE).
	Charles Tilly Charles Tilly Charles Tilly was an American sociologist, political scientist, and historian who wrote on the relationship between politics and society. He was the Joseph L. Buttenwieser Professor of Social Science at Columbia University....	Sociology
1983	Hume Cronyn Hume Cronyn Hume Blake Cronyn, OC was a Canadian actor of stage and screen, who enjoyed a long career, often appearing professionally alongside his second wife, Jessica Tandy.-Early life:... (d. )	Dramatic Arts
	Jessica Tandy Jessica Tandy Jessie Alice "Jessica" Tandy was an English-American stage and film actress.She first appeared on the London stage in 1926 at the age of 16, playing, among others, Katherine opposite Laurence Olivier's Henry V, and Cordelia opposite John Gielgud's King Lear. She also worked in British films...	Dramatic Arts
	Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Jeane Kirkpatrick Jeane Jordan Kirkpatrick was an American ambassador and an ardent anticommunist. After serving as Ronald Reagan's foreign policy adviser in his 1980 campaign and later in his Cabinet, the longtime Democrat-turned-Republican was nominated as the U.S...	Government
	Christopher Isherwood Christopher Isherwood Christopher William Bradshaw Isherwood was an English-American novelist.-Early life and work:Born at Wyberslegh Hall, High Lane, Cheshire in North West England, Isherwood spent his childhood in various towns where his father, a Lieutenant-Colonel in the British Army, was stationed...	Literature
	César Milstein César Milstein César Milstein FRS was an Argentine biochemist in the field of antibody research. Milstein shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Niels K. Jerne and Georges Köhler.-Biography:...	Science & Invention
	Kenneth Lane Thompson	Science & Invention
	William Sewell William H. Sewell William Hamilton Sewell was a United States sociologist and the Chancellor of the University of Wisconsin–Madison from 1967-1968. He is known also as the father of another sociologist .-Biography:...	Sociology
1984	Athol Fugard Athol Fugard Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, novelist, actor, and director who writes in English, best known for his political plays opposing the South African system of apartheid and for the 2005 Academy-Award winning film of his novel Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood...  South Africa	Dramatic Arts
	Stephen Sondheim Stephen Sondheim Stephen Joshua Sondheim is an American composer and lyricist for stage and film. He is the winner of an Academy Award, multiple Tony Awards including the Special Tony Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Theatre, multiple Grammy Awards, a Pulitzer Prize and the Laurence Olivier Award...	Dramatic Arts	Award-winning stage musical and film composer & lyricist.
	Eudora Welty Eudora Welty Eudora Alice Welty was an American author of short stories and novels about the American South. Her novel The Optimist's Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. Welty was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom, among numerous awards. She was the first living author to have her works published...	Literature
	Robert Phelan Langlands Robert Langlands Robert Phelan Langlands is a mathematician, best known as the founder of the Langlands program. He is an emeritus professor at the Institute for Advanced Study...	Science & Invention
	Joseph Rubinfeld	Invention	Instrumental in licensing the original anticancer line of products for Bristol-Meyers, as well as development of amoxicillin Amoxicillin Amoxicillin , formerly amoxycillin , and abbreviated amox, is a moderate-spectrum, bacteriolytic, β-lactam antibiotic used to treat bacterial infections caused by susceptible microorganisms. It is usually the drug of choice within the class because it is better absorbed, following oral... .
	Matilda White Riley	Sociology	Renowned sociologist and Daniel B. Fayerweather Professor of Political Economy and Sociology Emerita Emeritus Emeritus is a post-positive adjective that is used to designate a retired professor, bishop, or other professional or as a title. The female equivalent emerita is also sometimes used.-History:... .
1985	Zelda Fichandler Zelda Fichandler Zelda Fichandler is an American stage producer, director, and educator, best known as cofounder and longtime artistic director of the Arena Stage theatre in Washington, D.C....	Dramatic Arts	Famed cofounder and producing director of the Arena Stage Arena Stage Arena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest Washington, D.C. Its declared mission"is to produce huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit. Arena has broad shoulders and a capacity to produce anything from vast epics...  in Washington Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution.... .
	Max Frisch Max Frisch Max Rudolf Frisch was a Swiss playwright and novelist, regarded as highly representative of German-language literature after World War II. In his creative works Frisch paid particular attention to issues relating to problems of human identity, individuality, responsibility, morality and political...	Literature
	Candy Lightner Candy Lightner Candace Lynne "Candy" Lightner is the organizer and founding president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving . On May 3, 1980, Lightner’s 13-year-old daughter, Cari, was killed by a hit-and-run driver at Sunset and New York Avenues in Fair Oaks, California.The leniency of the sentence given to the...	Public Service	The organizer and founding president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Mothers Against Drunk Driving Mothers Against Drunk Driving is a non-profit organization in the United States that seeks to stop drunk driving, support those affected by drunk driving, prevent underage drinking, and overall push for stricter alcohol policy...  (MADD).
	Alain Aspect Alain Aspect Alain Aspect is a French physicist noted for his experimental work on quantum entanglement....	Science & Invention
	Delft Hydraulics Laboratory	Science & Invention
	Peter H. Rossi	Sociology	Prominent sociologist, best known for documenting homelessness in the 1980s.
1986	Samuel Beckett Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett was an Irish avant-garde novelist, playwright, theatre director, and poet. He wrote both in English and French. His work offers a bleak, tragicomic outlook on human nature, often coupled with black comedy and gallows humour.Beckett is widely regarded as among the most...	Dramatic Arts
	John Ashbery John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery is an American poet. He has published more than twenty volumes of poetry and won nearly every major American award for poetry, including a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his collection Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror. But Ashbery's work still proves controversial...	Literature	Award-winning American poet.
	Norman Cousins Norman Cousins Norman Cousins was an American political journalist, author, professor, and world peace advocate.-Early life and education:...	Mass Communications
	Leon H. Sullivan Leon Sullivan Leon Howard Sullivan was a Baptist minister, a civil rights leader and social activist focusing on the creation of job training opportunities for African-Americans, a longtime General Motors Board Member, and an anti-Apartheid activist. Sullivan died on April 24, 2001, of leukemia at a Scottsdale,...	Public Service
	Jet Propulsion Laboratory Jet Propulsion Laboratory Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federally funded research and development center and NASA field center located in the San Gabriel Valley area of Los Angeles County, California, United States. The facility is headquartered in the city of Pasadena on the border of La Cañada Flintridge and Pasadena...	Science & Invention	NASA NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...  research center which specializes in building and operating unmanned spacecraft.
	Kenneth H. Olsen Ken Olsen Kenneth Harry Olsen was an American engineer who co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation in 1957 with colleague Harlan Anderson.-Background:...	Science & Invention	American engineer who co-founded Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Digital Equipment Corporation Digital Equipment Corporation was a major American company in the computer industry and a leading vendor of computer systems, software and peripherals from the 1960s to the 1990s...  in 1957 with a colleague.
	John A. Clausen	Sociology
1987-88	Lloyd Richards Lloyd Richards Lloyd George Richards was a Canadian-American theatre director, actor, and dean of the Yale School of Drama from 1979 to 1991, and Yale University professor emeritus.- Biography :... (b. )	Dramatic Arts
	Andrei Voznesensky	Literature
	Gordon Parks Gordon Parks Gordon Roger Alexander Buchanan Parks was a groundbreaking American photographer, musician, poet, novelist, journalist, activist and film director...	Mass Communications	Famed American photographer, pianist, film director, and novelist.
	N.T. Pete Shields	Public Service	Cofounder of Handgun Control, a Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution.... -based citizens' gun control Gun control Gun control is any law, policy, practice, or proposal designed to restrict or limit the possession, production, importation, shipment, sale, and/or use of guns or other firearms by private citizens...  lobbying organization
	John B. MacChesney John B. MacChesney Dr. John B. MacChesney is a Bell Labs pioneer in optical communication, best known for his 1974 invention of the modified chemical vapor deposition process with colleague P.B. O'Connor, and for co-inventing high-purity "sol-gel" overcladding for optical fiber in the early 1980s...	Science & Invention	Best known for key inventions in the commercial manufacture of optical fiber Optical fiber An optical fiber is a flexible, transparent fiber made of a pure glass not much wider than a human hair. It functions as a waveguide, or "light pipe", to transmit light between the two ends of the fiber. The field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of... .
	Robin M. Williams, Jr.	Sociology
1989	Jennifer Tipton Jennifer Tipton Jennifer Tipton is a lighting designer. She has designed for dance, theater and opera.In 1958, she graduated from Cornell University...	Dramatic Arts	Award-winning American lighting designer.
	George P. Shultz George P. Shultz George Pratt Shultz is an American economist, statesman, and businessman. He served as the United States Secretary of Labor from 1969 to 1970, as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1972 to 1974, and as the U.S. Secretary of State from 1982 to 1989...	Government	Former Secretary of Labor, Secretary of the Treasury, and head of the Office of Management and Budget.
	Toni Morrison Toni Morrison Toni Morrison is a Nobel Prize and Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist, editor, and professor. Her novels are known for their epic themes, vivid dialogue, and richly detailed characters. Among her best known novels are The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon and Beloved...	Literature	Nobel Prize Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895... -winning author, editor, and professor.
	David Brinkley David Brinkley David McClure Brinkley was an American newscaster for NBC and ABC in a career lasting from 1943 to 1997....	Mass Communications	Emmy nominated television newscaster and host of This Week with David Brinkley from 1982-1997.
	Leroy E. Hood	Science & Invention	American biologist who helped to decode the human genome Genome In modern molecular biology and genetics, the genome is the entirety of an organism's hereditary information. It is encoded either in DNA or, for many types of virus, in RNA. The genome includes both the genes and the non-coding sequences of the DNA/RNA.... .
	Alice S. Rossi Alice S. Rossi Alice S. Rossi was a pioneering feminist and sociologist.-Biography:Rossi's scholarship focused on the status of women at work, in the family, and their sexual life. Her writings helped to build the foundations of the feminist movement. Her early advocacy of abortion and reproductive rights...	Sociology	Cofounder of the National Organization of Women; 74th president of the American Sociological Association American Sociological Association The American Sociological Association , founded in 1905 as the American Sociological Society , is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the discipline and profession of sociology by serving sociologists in their work and promoting their contributions to serve society.The ASA holds its... .
1990	Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins Jerome Robbins was an American theater producer, director, and choreographer known primarily for Broadway Theater and Ballet/Dance, but who also occasionally directed films and directed/produced for television. His work has included everything from classical ballet to contemporary musical theater...	Dramatic Arts	Academy Award-winning film director and choreographer.
	Aharon Appelfeld Aharon Appelfeld -Biography:Appelfeld was born in the village of Zhadova near Czernowitz, Romania, now Ukraine. In 1941, when he was eight years old, the Romanian army invaded his hometown and his mother was murdered. Appelfeld was deported with his father to a concentration camp in Ukraine. He escaped and hid for... (b. )	Literature	One of Israel's foremost living Hebrew-language authors.
	David Broder David S. Broder David Salzer Broder was an American journalist, writing for The Washington Post for over forty years. He also was an author, television news show pundit, and university lecturer....	Mass Communications	Pulitzer Prize Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City... -winning journalist, author, talk show pundit, and university professor.
	Jaime Escalante Jaime Escalante Jaime Alfonso Escalante Gutierrez was a Bolivian educator well-known for teaching students calculus from 1974 to 1991 at Garfield High School, East Los Angeles, California...	Public Service
	J.C.R. Licklider	Science & Invention	Renowned for his work on the human-computer dialogue, time sharing, virtual memory Virtual memory In computing, virtual memory is a memory management technique developed for multitasking kernels. This technique virtualizes a computer architecture's various forms of computer data storage , allowing a program to be designed as though there is only one kind of memory, "virtual" memory, which... , and resource sharing.
	Mirra Komarovsky Mirra Komarovsky Mirra Komarovsky , a pioneer in the sociology of gender.Coming from a privileged Jewish family in Czarist Russia, her family fled the country after the 1917 Russian Revolution. Komarovsky’s parents were Zionists and landowning Jews in Akkerman, Russia, until tsarist police drove them from their home...	Sociology
1991	James Earl Jones James Earl Jones James Earl Jones is an American actor. He is well-known for his distinctive bass voice and for his portrayal of characters of substance, gravitas and leadership...	Dramatic Arts
	Paul A. Volcker	Government	Former chairman of the Federal Reserve.
	Adrienne Rich Adrienne Rich Adrienne Cecile Rich is an American poet, essayist and feminist. She has been called "one of the most widely read and influential poets of the second half of the 20th century."-Early life:...	Literature
	Sebastião Salgado Sebastião Salgado Sebastião Salgado is a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist.-Biography:Salgado was born on February 8, 1944 in Aimorés, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. After a somewhat itinerant childhood, Salgado initially trained as an economist, earning a master’s degree in...	Mass Communications	Respected photojournalist and Special Representative for UNICEF.
	Roger N. Beachy Roger N. Beachy Roger N. Beachy is an American biologist and the founding president of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center in St. Louis, Missouri.- Birth, family and education :...	Science & Invention	American biologist and founder of the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Donald Danforth Plant Science Center The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center is a not-for-profit scientific facility located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Its main mission point is to "improve the human condition through plant science".... .
	Nathan Keyfitz	Sociology	Responsible for important work regarding formal demography Demography Demography is the statistical study of human population. It can be a very general science that can be applied to any kind of dynamic human population, that is, one that changes over time or space...  and population projections.
1992	Arthur Miller Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...	Dramatic Arts
	Warren E. Burger Warren E. Burger Warren Earl Burger was the 15th Chief Justice of the United States from 1969 to 1986. Although Burger had conservative leanings, the U.S...	Government
	James A. Michener James A. Michener James Albert Michener was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which were sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating historical facts into the stories...	Literature
	Ted Turner Ted Turner Robert Edward "Ted" Turner III is an American media mogul and philanthropist. As a businessman, he is known as founder of the cable news network CNN, the first dedicated 24-hour cable news channel. In addition, he founded WTBS, which pioneered the superstation concept in cable television...	Mass Communications	American media mogul Business magnate A business magnate, sometimes referred to as a capitalist, czar, mogul, tycoon, baron, oligarch, or industrialist, is an informal term used to refer to an entrepreneur who has reached prominence and derived a notable amount of wealth from a particular industry .-Etymology:The word magnate itself...  and philanthropist Philanthropist A philanthropist is someone who engages in philanthropy; that is, someone who donates his or her time, money, and/or reputation to charitable causes... .
	Susan Solomon Susan Solomon Susan Solomon is an atmospheric chemist working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Solomon was one of the first to propose chlorofluorocarbons as the cause of the Antarctic ozone hole.Solomon is a member of the U.S...	Science & Invention	Demonstrated the first conclusive link between manmade CFCs and the ozone Ozone Ozone , or trioxygen, is a triatomic molecule, consisting of three oxygen atoms. It is an allotrope of oxygen that is much less stable than the diatomic allotrope...  holes above Antarctica.
1993	Julie Harris Julie Harris Julia Ann "Julie" Harris is an American stage, screen, and television actress. She has won five Tony Awards, three Emmy Awards and a Grammy Award, and was nominated for an Academy Award. In 1994, she was awarded the National Medal of Arts. She is a member of the American Theatre Hall of Fame...	Dramatic Arts	Three-time Emmy Award Emmy Award An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various... -winning and five-time Tony Award Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes achievement in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ceremony in New York City. The awards are given for Broadway... -winning actress of stage, screen, and television.
	John Updike John Updike John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....	Literature	Prominent American novelist, poet, short story writer, and literary critic.
	Jim Lehrer Jim Lehrer James Charles "Jim" Lehrer is an American journalist and the executive editor and former news anchor for PBS NewsHour on PBS, known for his role as a frequent debate moderator during elections...	Mass Communications	American journalist and anchor for The News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia.... .
	Jonas Salk Jonas Salk Jonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist, best known for his discovery and development of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. He was born in New York City to parents from Ashkenazi Jewish Russian immigrant families...	Public Service	World-renowned for his development of the polio vaccine Polio vaccine Two polio vaccines are used throughout the world to combat poliomyelitis . The first was developed by Jonas Salk and first tested in 1952. Announced to the world by Salk on April 12, 1955, it consists of an injected dose of inactivated poliovirus. An oral vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin... .
	Charles H. Townes	Science & Invention	Accomplishments range from helping ease the strain of everyday life to studying the origin of the universe.
1994	August Wilson August Wilson August Wilson was an American playwright whose work included a series of ten plays, The Pittsburgh Cycle, for which he received two Pulitzer Prizes for Drama...	Dramatic Arts	Prominent African-American playwright.
	Henry A. Kissinger Henry Kissinger Heinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...	Government	Former Secretary of State Secretary of State Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....  and Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs; founder of Kissinger Associates Kissinger Associates Kissinger Associates, Inc., founded in 1982, is a New York City-based international consulting firm, founded and run by Henry Kissinger, and Brent Scowcroft... .
	Larry King Larry King Lawrence Harvey "Larry" King is an American television and radio host whose work has been recognized with awards including two Peabodys and ten Cable ACE Awards....	Mass Communications	Award-winning television and radio broadcaster; host of CNN CNN Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States... 's Larry King Live Larry King Live Larry King Live is an American talk show hosted by Larry King on CNN from 1985 to 2010. It was CNN's most watched and longest-running program, with over one million viewers nightly.... .
	Jacques-Yves Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau Jacques-Yves Cousteau was a French naval officer, explorer, ecologist, filmmaker, innovator, scientist, photographer, author and researcher who studied the sea and all forms of life in water...	Public Service	Explorer, ecologist, scientist, photographer, and researcher who invented SCUBA Scuba set A scuba set is an independent breathing set that provides a scuba diver with the breathing gas necessary to breathe underwater during scuba diving. It is much used for sport diving and some sorts of work diving....  and pioneered unaided deep sea diving.
	Leland H. Hartwell Leland H. Hartwell Leland Harrison Hartwell is former president and director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington. He shared the 2001 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Paul Nurse and R...	Science & Invention	Widely recognized pioneer in the field of yeastgenetics and cancer Cancer Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...  research.
1995	Jane Alexander Jane Alexander Jane Alexander is an American actress, author, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Although perhaps best known for playing the female lead in The Great White Hope on both stage and screen, Alexander has played a wide array of roles in both theater and film and has committed...	Dramatic Arts	Award-winning actress, author, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts National Endowment for the Arts The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent agency of the United States federal government that offers support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic excellence. It was created by an act of the U.S. Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. Its current... .
	William Styron William Styron William Clark Styron, Jr. was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work.For much of his career, Styron was best known for his novels, which included...	Literature	Novelist who explored difficult historical and moral questions.
	Charles Kuralt Charles Kuralt Charles Kuralt was an American journalist. He was most widely known for his long career with CBS, first for his "On the Road" segments on The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite, and later as the first anchor of CBS News Sunday Morning, a position he held for fifteen years.Kuralt's "On the Road"...	Mass Communications	Award-winning American journalist, best known for his long career with CBS CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of... .
	James James Brady James Scott "Jim" Brady is a former Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary under U.S. President Ronald Reagan...  & Sarah Brady Sarah Brady Sarah Brady is the wife of former White House Press Secretary James Brady. She was born to L. Stanley Kemp, a high school teacher and later FBI agent, and Frances Stufflebean Kemp, a former teacher and homemaker...	Public Service	Influential members of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
	Karen Uhlenbeck Karen Uhlenbeck Karen Keskulla Uhlenbeck is a professor and Sid W. Richardson Regents Chairholder in the Department of Mathematics at The University of Texas in Austin. In 1998 she was selected to be a Noether Lecturer. In 2000, she became a recipient of the National Medal of Science...	Science & Invention	Helped in the understanding of the fundamental properties of matter Matter Matter is a general term for the substance of which all physical objects consist. Typically, matter includes atoms and other particles which have mass. A common way of defining matter is as anything that has mass and occupies volume...  in the universe.
1996	Jason Robards Jason Robards Jason Nelson Robards, Jr. was an American actor on stage, and in film and television, and a winner of the Tony Award , two Academy Awards and the Emmy Award...	Dramatic Arts	Award-winning film and television actor.
	Derek Walcott Derek Walcott Derek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...  Saint Lucia	Literature	Nobel Prize Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895... -winning poet, playwright, writer, visual artist, and theatre & art critic.
	Ken Burns Ken Burns Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs...	Mass Communications	Award-winning documentary filmmaker.
	Eunice Kennedy Shriver Eunice Kennedy Shriver Eunice Kennedy Shriver, DSG a member of the Kennedy family, sister to President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert F. Kennedy and Edward Kennedy, was the founder in 1962 of Camp Shriver, and in 1968, the Special Olympics...	Public Service	Founder of the Special Olympics Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and competitions to more than 3.1 million athletes in 175 countries.... .
	Andrew Wiles Andrew Wiles Sir Andrew John Wiles KBE FRS is a British mathematician and a Royal Society Research Professor at Oxford University, specializing in number theory...	Science & Invention	Solved Fermat's Last Theorem Fermat's Last Theorem In number theory, Fermat's Last Theorem states that no three positive integers a, b, and c can satisfy the equation an + bn = cn for any integer value of n greater than two.... , an equation that had perplexed mathematicians for centuries.
1997	Seamus Heaney Seamus Heaney Seamus Heaney is an Irish poet, writer and lecturer. He lives in Dublin. Heaney has received the Nobel Prize in Literature , the Golden Wreath of Poetry , T. S. Eliot Prize and two Whitbread prizes...	Literature	Nobel Prize Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895... -winning poet, writer, and lecturer.
	Michael E. DeBakey Michael E. DeBakey Michael Elias DeBakey was a world-renowned Lebanese-American cardiac surgeon, innovator, scientist, medical educator, and international medical statesman...	Science & Invention	Internationally recognized pioneer in the field of cardiovascular research and surgery.
	Jane Goodall Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall, DBE , is a British primatologist, ethologist, anthropologist, and UN Messenger of Peace. Considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best known for her 45-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National...	Public Service	World-renowned for her 45-year study of chimpanzee Chimpanzee Chimpanzee, sometimes colloquially chimp, is the common name for the two extant species of ape in the genus Pan. The Congo River forms the boundary between the native habitat of the two species:...  social and family life.
	Edward Albee Edward Albee Edward Franklin Albee III is an American playwright who is best known for The Zoo Story , The Sandbox , Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and a rewrite of the screenplay for the unsuccessful musical version of Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's . His works are considered well-crafted, often...	Dramatic Arts	Pulitzer Prize Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City... -winning contemporary American playwright.
	James H. Clark James H. Clark James H. Clark is an American entrepreneur and computer scientist. He founded several notable Silicon Valley technology companies, including Silicon Graphics, Inc., Netscape Communications Corporation, myCFO and Healtheon...	Mass Communications	Prolific entrepreneur and former computer scientist; cofounder of Netscape Communications Corporation.
1998	Christopher Plummer Christopher Plummer Arthur Christopher Orne Plummer, CC is a Canadian theatre, film and television actor. He made his film debut in 1957's Stage Struck, and notable early film performances include Night of the Generals, The Return of the Pink Panther and The Man Who Would Be King.In a career that spans over five...	Dramatic Arts	Actor of stage, screen, and television during his five-decade career.
	Saul Bellow Saul Bellow Saul Bellow was a Canadian-born Jewish American writer. For his literary contributions, Bellow was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the National Medal of Arts... (b. )	Literature	Nobel Prize Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895... -winning novelist.
	Bill Moyers Bill Moyers Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...	Mass Communications	Veteran journalist who worked for both CBS CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...  and PBS Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....  during his nearly four-decade career.
	Betty Ford Betty Ford Elizabeth Ann Bloomer Warren Ford , better known as Betty Ford, was First Lady of the United States from 1974 to 1977 during the presidency of her husband Gerald Ford...	Public Service	Founder of the Betty Ford Center Betty Ford Center The Betty Ford Center , is a non-profit, separately licensed residential chemical dependency recovery hospital in Rancho Mirage, California, that offers inpatient, outpatient, and day treatment for alcohol and other drug addictions as well as prevention and education programs for family and children... , a drug and alcohol dependency treatment center located in Rancho Mirage, CA.
	Stephanie Kwolek Stephanie Kwolek Stephanie Louise Kwolek is a Polish-American chemist who invented poly-paraphenylene terephtalamide—better known as Kevlar. She was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of New Kensington, Pennsylvania. Kwolek has won numerous awards for her work in polymer chemistry.- Early life and education :Kwolek was...	Science & Invention	Was responsible for the creation and discovery of Kevlar Kevlar Kevlar is the registered trademark for a para-aramid synthetic fiber, related to other aramids such as Nomex and Technora. Developed at DuPont in 1965, this high strength material was first commercially used in the early 1970s as a replacement for steel in racing tires...  during her time at the DuPont Company.
1999	Dr. Louis Miller	Science & Invention	Biologist who has made vast contributions to malaria Malaria Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases...  research and other widespread tropical diseases.
	John Irving John Irving John Winslow Irving is an American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.Irving achieved critical and popular acclaim after the international success of The World According to Garp in 1978...	Literature	Bestselling American novelist and Academy Award-winning screenwriter.
	Robert MacNeil Robert MacNeil Robert Breckenridge Ware MacNeil, OC, known sometimes as Robin MacNeil, , is currently a novelist and formerly was a television news anchor and journalist who had paired with Jim Lehrer to create The MacNeil/Lehrer Report in 1975.-Early life:MacNeil was born in Montreal, the son of Margaret...	Mass Communications	Former television news anchor and journalist of The MacNeil/Lehrer Report.
	Lawrence Eagleburger Lawrence Eagleburger Lawrence Sidney Eagleburger was an American statesman and former career diplomat, who served briefly as the United States Secretary of State under President George H. W. Bush. Previously, he had served in lesser capacities under Presidents Richard Nixon, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H....	Government	Former Secretary of State Secretary of State Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....  and diplomat Diplomat A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and... .
	Julie Taymor Julie Taymor Julie Taymor is an American director of theater, opera and film. Taymor's work has received many accolades from critics, and she has earned two Tony Awards out of four nominations, the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Costume Design, an Emmy Award and an Academy Award nomination for Original Song...	Dramatic Arts	American director of Broadway theatre Broadway theatre Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...  and film.
2000	Desmond Tutu Desmond Tutu Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...  South Africa	Public Service	Anglican archbishop, international human rights leader, and 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...  laureate.
	E. L. Doctorow E. L. Doctorow Edgar Lawrence Doctorow is an American author.- Biography :Edgar Lawrence Doctorow was born in the Bronx, New York City, the son of second-generation Americans of Russian Jewish descent...	Literature	Foremost American novelist acclaimed for his lyrical, breakthrough fiction.
	Christiane Amanpour Christiane Amanpour Christiane Amanpour, CBE is anchor of ABC News's This Week and formerly chief international correspondent at CNN, where she worked for 27 years. She is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Early years:...	Mass Communications	CNN CNN Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...  chief foreign correspondent and influential reporter of global crises.
	Robert Ballard Robert Ballard Robert Duane Ballard is a former United States Navy officer and a professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island who is most noted for his work in underwater archaeology. He is most famous for the discoveries of the wrecks of the RMS Titanic in 1985, the battleship Bismarck in 1989,...	Science & Invention	Marine scientist, pioneer of deep ocean exploration, and undersea archaeologist.
	Mikhail Baryshnikov Mikhail Baryshnikov Mikhail Nikolaevich Baryshnikov is a Soviet and American dancer, choreographer, and actor, often cited alongside Vaslav Nijinsky and Rudolf Nureyev as one of the greatest ballet dancers of the 20th century. After a promising start in the Kirov Ballet in Leningrad, he defected to Canada in 1974...	Dramatic Arts	Legendary dancer and icon of classical ballet Classical ballet Classical Ballet is the most formal of the ballet styles, it adheres to traditional ballet technique. There are variations relating to area of origin, such as Russian ballet, French ballet, British ballet and Italian ballet...  and modern dance Modern dance Modern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century ballroom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Intro:... .
2001	Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman Morgan Freeman is an American actor, film director, aviator and narrator. He is noted for his reserved demeanor and authoritative speaking voice. Freeman has received Academy Award nominations for his performances in Street Smart, Driving Miss Daisy, The Shawshank Redemption and Invictus and won...	Dramatic Arts	Veteran actor acclaimed for his classic, commanding roles on stage, screen, and television.
	J. Craig Venter	Science & Invention	Biochemist, entrepreneur, and gene pioneer who succeeded in unlocking the human genetic code.
	James Nachtwey James Nachtwey James Nachtwey is an American photojournalist and war photographer.He grew up in Massachusetts and graduated from Dartmouth College, where he studied Art History and Political Science ....	Mass Communications	Renowned photojournalist who has chronicled the human anguish of war, genocide Genocide Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars... , and famine Famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including crop failure, overpopulation, or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompanied or followed by regional malnutrition, starvation, epidemic, and increased mortality. Every continent in the world has...  worldwide.
	Philip Roth Philip Roth Philip Milton Roth is an American novelist. He gained fame with the 1959 novella Goodbye, Columbus, an irreverent and humorous portrait of Jewish-American life that earned him a National Book Award...	Literature	Pulitzer Prize Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...  winner regarded as a literary giant among America's postwar generation of writers.
	Dr. William Magee Dr. William Magee Dr. William P. Magee, Jr., D.D.S., M.D., a leading plastic and craniofacial surgeon, founded Operation Smile in 1982, with his wife, Kathleen S. Magee, B.S.N., M.Ed., M.S.W., and serves as the organization's Chief Executive Officer...  & Kathleen Magee	Public Service	Founders of Operation Smile Operation Smile Operation Smile is a not-for-profit medical service organization based in Norfolk, Virginia , founded in 1982. A secular NGO, the children's medical charity provides cleft lip and palate repair surgeries to children worldwide, assists countries in reaching self-sufficiency with these surgeries, and... , which aids children with facial deformities around the world.
2002	Julie Andrews Julie Andrews Dame Julia Elizabeth Andrews, DBE is an English film and stage actress, singer, and author. She is the recipient of Golden Globe, Emmy, Grammy, BAFTA, People's Choice Award, Theatre World Award, Screen Actors Guild and Academy Award honors...	Dramatic Arts	World-renowned performer whose stardom spans movies, theater, television, and concert hall.
	Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes Carlos Fuentes Macías is a Mexican writer and one of the best-known living novelists and essayists in the Spanish-speaking world. He has influenced contemporary Latin American literature, and his works have been widely translated into English and other languages.-Biography:Fuentes was born in...	Literature	Preeminent writer of fiction and political commentary, and a leading cultural force in modern Latin America Latin America Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages  – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area... .
	Lonnie Thompson Lonnie Thompson Lonnie Thompson , is an American paleoclimatologist and Distinguished University Professor in the School of Earth Sciences at The Ohio State University. He has achieved global recognition for his drilling and analysis of ice cores from mountain glaciers and ice caps in the tropical and sub-tropical...  & Ellen Mosley-Thompson	Science & Invention	Researchers who have tracked Earth's ancient climate history and global warming Global warming Global warming refers to the rising average temperature of Earth's atmosphere and oceans and its projected continuation. In the last 100 years, Earth's average surface temperature increased by about with about two thirds of the increase occurring over just the last three decades... .
	George Mitchell George J. Mitchell George John Mitchell, Jr., is the former U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace under the Obama administration. A Democrat, Mitchell was a United States Senator who served as the Senate Majority Leader from 1989 to 1995...	Government	Former U.S. Senate majority leader and peace mediator for Northern Ireland Northern Ireland Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...  and the Middle East Middle East The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East... .
	Fred Rogers	Mass Communications	Children's television icon; creator and host of the critically acclaimed Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Mister Rogers' Neighborhood Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, also known as Mister Rogers, is an American children's television series that was created and hosted by Fred Rogers. The series is aimed primarily at preschool ages, 2-5, but has been stated by Public Broadcasting Service as "appropriate for all ages"... .
2003	Sam Donaldson Sam Donaldson Samuel Andrew "Sam" Donaldson, Jr. is a reporter and news anchor, serving with ABC News from 1967 to the present, best known as the network's White House Correspondent and as a panelist and later co-anchor of the network's Sunday Program "This Week."-Early life and career:Donaldson was born in El...	Mass Communications	Veteran television journalist and former chief White House correspondent for ABC News ABC News ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company... .
	Bob Dole Bob Dole Robert Joseph "Bob" Dole is an American attorney and politician. Dole represented Kansas in the United States Senate from 1969 to 1996, was Gerald Ford's Vice Presidential running mate in the 1976 presidential election, and was Senate Majority Leader from 1985 to 1987 and in 1995 and 1996...	Government	Former U.S. Senate majority leader and influential voice of the Republican Party Republican Party (United States) The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S... .
	Susan Stroman Susan Stroman Susan Stroman is an American theatre director, choreographer, film director, and performer. She has won the Tony Award for both her choreography and direction, notably for the stage musical The Producers.-Early years:...	Dramatic Arts	Broadway Broadway theatre Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City... 's most celebrated director-choreographer.
	Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates Joyce Carol Oates is an American author. Oates published her first book in 1963 and has since published over fifty novels, as well as many volumes of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction...	Literature	One of America's most significant and inventive contemporary writers.
	Dean Kamen Dean Kamen Dean L. Kamen is an American entrepreneur and inventor from New Hampshire.Born in Rockville Centre, New York, he attended Worcester Polytechnic Institute, but dropped out before graduating after five years of private advanced research for drug infusion pump AutoSyringe...	Science & Invention	Renowned inventor of breakthrough medical and transportation devices.
2004	Christopher Reeve Christopher Reeve Christopher D'Olier Reeve was an American actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, author and activist...	Public Service	Renowned actor and America's leading advocate for people with paralysis Paralysis Paralysis is loss of muscle function for one or more muscles. Paralysis can be accompanied by a loss of feeling in the affected area if there is sensory damage as well as motor. A study conducted by the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, suggests that about 1 in 50 people have been diagnosed...  and other disabilities.
	Meryl Streep Meryl Streep Mary Louise "Meryl" Streep is an American actress who has worked in theatre, television and film.Streep made her professional stage debut in 1971's The Playboy of Seville, before her screen debut in the television movie The Deadliest Season in 1977. In that same year, she made her film debut with...	Dramatic Arts	Legendary actress and Hollywood icon, considered the greatest film star of her generation.
	Stanley Prusiner, M.D.	Science & Invention	Pioneering researcher and Nobel Prize Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895... -winner who discovered the deadly protein linked to mad-cow disease.
	Isabel Allende Isabel Allende Isabel Allende Llona is a Chilean writer with American citizenship. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits and City of the Beasts , which have been commercially successful...	Literature	The most widely read and renowned Latin American woman writer in the world.
	Andrea Mitchell Andrea Mitchell Andrea Mitchell is an American television journalist, anchor, reporter, and commentator for NBC News based in Washington, D.C.. She is the NBC News Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent, and has recently reported on the 2008 Race for the White House for NBC News broadcasts, including NBC Nightly...	Mass Communications	Leading broadcast journalist and chief foreign affairs correspondent for NBC News NBC News NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is... .
2005	Gen. Colin L. Powell Colin Powell Colin Luther Powell is an American statesman and a retired four-star general in the United States Army. He was the 65th United States Secretary of State, serving under President George W. Bush from 2001 to 2005. He was the first African American to serve in that position. During his military...	Government	Former Secretary of State Secretary of State Secretary of State or State Secretary is a commonly used title for a senior or mid-level post in governments around the world. The role varies between countries, and in some cases there are multiple Secretaries of State in the Government....  and respected leader, diplomat, and soldier.
	David Mamet David Mamet David Alan Mamet is an American playwright, essayist, screenwriter and film director.Best known as a playwright, Mamet won a Pulitzer Prize and received a Tony nomination for Glengarry Glen Ross . He also received a Tony nomination for Speed-the-Plow . As a screenwriter, he received Oscar...	Dramatic Arts	Pulitzer Prize Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City... -winning playwright, Hollywood screenwriter, and preeminent dramatist.
	Tim Berners-Lee Tim Berners-Lee Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee, , also known as "TimBL", is a British computer scientist, MIT professor and the inventor of the World Wide Web...	Mass Communications	Visionary inventor of the World Wide Web World Wide Web The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...  and director of the World Wide Web consortium.
	Amy Tan Amy Tan Amy Tan is an American writer whose works explore mother-daughter relationships. Her most well-known work is The Joy Luck Club, which has been translated into 35 languages...	Literature	Best-selling novelist whose stories explore family ties, heritage, and the Asian-American experience.
	Kip Thorne Kip Thorne Kip Stephen Thorne is an American theoretical physicist, known for his prolific contributions in gravitation physics and astrophysics and for having trained a generation of scientists...	Science & Invention	Foremost American researcher of black holes and gravitational waves.
2006	John Glenn John Glenn John Herschel Glenn, Jr. is a former United States Marine Corps pilot, astronaut, and United States senator who was the first American to orbit the Earth and the third American in space. Glenn was a Marine Corps fighter pilot before joining NASA's Mercury program as a member of NASA's original...	Government	Former U.S. Senator, astronaut, and heroic pioneer of American space exploration.
	HM Queen Noor of Jordan	Public Service	A leading voice for global peace-building, human rights Human rights Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national... , and conflict recovery issues.
	Mike Nichols Mike Nichols Mike Nichols is a German-born American television, stage and film director, writer, producer and comedian. He began his career in the 1950s as one half of the comedy duo Nichols and May, along with Elaine May. In 1968 he won the Academy Award for Best Director for the film The Graduate...	Dramatic Arts	Preeminent and award-winning director of stage and screen.
	Rita Dove Rita Dove Rita Frances Dove is an American poet and author. From 1993-1995 she served as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now popularly known as "U.S. Poet Laureate"...	Literature	Pulitzer Prize Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City... -winning poet and two-term Poet Laureate Poet Laureate A poet laureate is a poet officially appointed by a government and is often expected to compose poems for state occasions and other government events...  of the United States.
	Anderson Cooper Anderson Cooper Anderson Hays Cooper is an American journalist, author, and television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories...	Mass Communications	Leading broadcast journalist and CNN CNN Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...  news anchor of Anderson Cooper 360° Anderson Cooper 360° Anderson Cooper 360° is a one-hour television news show on CNN, hosted by the American journalist Anderson Cooper. It is also broadcast around the world on CNN International.... .
2007	Sidney Poitier Sidney Poitier Sir Sidney Poitier, KBE is a Bahamian American actor, film director, author, and diplomat.In 1963, Poitier became the first black person to win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in Lilies of the Field...	Dramatic Arts	Academy Award-winning actor and cinematic trailblazer.
	Aleksander Kwaśniewski Aleksander Kwasniewski Aleksander Kwaśniewski is a Polish politician who served as the President of Poland from 1995 to 2005. He was born in Białogard, and during communist rule he was active in the Socialist Union of Polish Students and was the Minister for Sport in the communist government in the 1980s...	Government	Former two-term president of the Republic of Poland; cofounder of the Social Democratic Party.
	Cokie Roberts Cokie Roberts Mary Martha Corinne Morrison Claiborne Roberts , best known as Cokie Roberts, is an American Emmy Award-winning journalist and bestselling author. She is a contributing senior news analyst for National Public Radio as well as a regular roundtable analyst for the current This Week with Christiane...	Mass Communications	Veteran broadcast journalist; best-selling author; political analyst for ABC News ABC News ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company... ; and NPR NPR NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...  senior news analyst.
	Ian McEwan Ian McEwan Ian Russell McEwan CBE, FRSA, FRSL is a British novelist and screenwriter, and one of Britain's most highly regarded writers. In 2008, The Times named him among their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"....	Literature	Acclaimed and award-winning British novelist, short-story, and screen writer.
2008	Glenn Close Glenn Close Glenn Close is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and singer of theatre and film, known for her roles as a femme fatale Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress and...	Dramatic Arts	Celebrated actress of stage, screen, and television.
	John Howard John Howard John Winston Howard AC, SSI, was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia, from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He was the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Sir Robert Menzies....	Government	Four-term prime minister Prime minister A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...  of Australia.
	Ann Curry Ann Curry Ann Curry is an American television news journalist and co-anchor on NBC's morning television program Today. She is the former news anchor on Today, a role she began in March 1997, and was the host of Dateline NBC from 2005-2011.Curry is a Board Member at the IWMF .-Biography:Curry was born in... (b. )	Mass Communications	News anchor of NBC NBC The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago... 's Today; coanchor of Dateline NBC Dateline NBC Dateline NBC, or Dateline, is a U.S. weekly television newsmagazine broadcast by NBC. It previously was NBC's flagship news magazine, but now focuses on true crime stories. It airs Friday at 9 p.m. EST and after football season on Sunday at 7 p.m. EST.-History:Dateline is historically notable for... .
	James E. Hansen	Science	Preeminent climate scientist; director of the NASA NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the agency of the United States government that is responsible for the nation's civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research...  Goddard Institute for Space Studies Goddard Institute for Space Studies The NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies , at Columbia University in New York City, is a component laboratory of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center Earth-Sun Exploration Division and a unit of The Earth Institute at Columbia University... .
2009	Buzz Aldren	Science	Astronaut and lunar explorer.
	Doris Kearns Goodwin Doris Kearns Goodwin Doris Kearns Goodwin is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American biographer and historian, and an oft-seen political commentator. She is the author of biographies of several U.S...	Mass Communications	Historian and Pulitzer Prize Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City... -winning author.
	Don DeLillo Don DeLillo Don DeLillo is an American author, playwright, and occasional essayist whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries...	Literature	Author, playwright and occasional essayist whose work paints a detailed portrait of American life in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
	Kevin Spacey Kevin Spacey Kevin Spacey, CBE is an American actor, director, screenwriter, producer, and crooner. He grew up in California, and began his career as a stage actor during the 1980s, before being cast in supporting roles in film and television...	Dramatic Arts	Academy Award-winning actor and artistic director of London London London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its... 's Old Vic Theatre Company.
2010	Annie Leibovitz Annie Leibovitz Anna-Lou "Annie" Leibovitz is an American portrait photographer.-Early life and education:Born in Waterbury, Connecticut, Leibovitz is the third of six children. She is a third-generation American whose great-grandparents were Jewish immigrants, from Central and Eastern Europe. Her father's...	Mass Communications	Legendary portrait photographer responsible for some of the most iconic images of the last four decades.
	Laura Linney Laura Linney Laura Leggett Linney is an American actress of film, television, and theatre. Linney has won three Emmy Awards, two Golden Globes, and a Screen Actors Guild Award. She has been nominated for three times for an Academy Award and once for a BAFTA Award...	Dramatic Arts	Award-winning actress of stage, film, and theatre. Best known for her roles in Love Actually Love Actually Love Actually is a 2003 British romantic comedy film written and directed by Richard Curtis. The screenplay delves into different aspects of love as shown through ten separate stories involving a wide variety of individuals, many of whom are shown to be interlinked as their tales progress... and HBO miniseries "John Adams John Adams (TV miniseries) John Adams is a 2008 American television miniseries chronicling most of President John Adams's political life and his role in the founding of the United States. Paul Giamatti portrays John Adams. The miniseries was directed by Tom Hooper. Kirk Ellis wrote the screenplay based on the book John... ."
	Greg Mortenson Greg Mortenson Greg Mortenson, SPk is an American humanitarian, professional speaker, writer, and former mountaineer. He is the co-founder and executive director of the non-profit Central Asia Institute as well as the founder of the educational charity Pennies for Peace...	Public Service	Humanitarian, writer, and Nobel Peace Prize Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...  nominee. Co-founder of the Central Asia Institute Central Asia Institute The Central Asia Institute is an American non-profit organization, co-founded by Greg Mortenson and Jean Hoerni and based in Bozeman, Montana...  and founder of the charity Pennies for Peace Pennies for Peace Pennies for Peace is an international service-learning program sponsored by the Central Asia Institute that "helps educate American children about the world to show them they can make a difference one penny at a time." The program focuses on raising cross-cultural awareness through education to... .
	Salman Rushdie	Literature	Booker Prize-winning novelist and essayist. Played a major role in the development of Indian English literature Indian English literature Indian English literature refers to the body of work by writers in India who write in the English language and whose native or co-native language could be one of the numerous languages of India. It is also associated with the works of members of the Indian diaspora, such as V.S... .
2011	Russell Banks Russell Banks Russell Banks is an American writer of fiction and poetry.- Biography :Russell Banks was born in Newton, Massachusetts on March 28, 1940. He attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in upstate New York, and has been named a New York State Author. He is also...	Literature	Internationally-acclaimed novelist, poet, and short story writer.
	Cherie Blair Cherie Blair Cherie Blair , known professionally as Cherie Booth QC, is a British barrister working in the legal system of England and Wales. She is married to the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair; the couple have three sons and one daughter...	Public Service	Noted human rights lawyer and women's rights activist.
	Bill Richardson	Government	Thirtieth Governor of New Mexico, former U.S. Energy Secretary, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and Congressman.
	George Will George Will George Frederick Will is an American newspaper columnist, journalist, and author. He is a Pulitzer Prize-winner best known for his conservative commentary on politics...	Mass Communications	America's foremost political commentator and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist.