Creator of World’s First Life-Size Whale Photos Bryant Austin is an artist working to affect change through the creation of life-size photographs of whales. His work has been met with critical acclaim, and has been received enthusiastically during exhibits worldwide, including shows in Norway and Japan — countries that continue to hunt whales. These full

Creator of the Green Ninja – World’s First Climate Action Superhero A climate scientist and Google Science Communication Fellow who works at San Jose State University (SJSU), Eugene Cordero is passionate about what he calls “science that matters to society.” Cordero’s aim is to reduce annual carbon emissions by 1 million tons using the power

Transforming Healthcare for Children and Their Families As principal designer for GE Healthcare, Doug had been designing diagnostic imaging equipment for more than 20 years when he realized that young patients’ actual experience of this cutting-edge technology was, well, awful. Children were often so terrified by the prospect of lying alone inside the huge, noisy

Social Entrepreneur Who Serves Humanity Through Technology Jim Fruchterman is a former rocket scientist who founded two leading optical character recognition companies, and has since developed successful social enterprises. His life focus has been in using the power of technology to serve humanity and in particular, people with disabilities. Today, Fruchterman runs Benetech, a nonprofit

Curious Urban Strategist Saba Ghole is an architect/urban designer turned education entrepreneur. As Founder and Chief Creative Officer of NuVu Studio, Saba leads the innovation center for middle and high school students, whose pedagogy is based on the studio model and geared around multi-disciplinary collaborative projects. Her experience in the urban design world exposed her

Music Heals and Connects… Roberto Granados is a home-schooled thirteen-year-old classical, flamenco, rock, blues guitarist, arranger, composer and ukulele virtuoso from Hayward, California. He began studying classical guitar at the age of six with Gyorgy Vass, and flamenco guitar at eight with renowned flamenco guitarist Jason McGuire. He has since also studied with distinguished guitarists

Cloning Ancient Trees David Milarch is co-founder of Archangel Ancient Tree Archive and pioneer in the cloning of ancient trees. He has dedicated his career to replanting the earth with the genetics of the world’s ancient forests and has led efforts to propagate more than 90 species, including the tallest redwoods.

Next Revolution in Photography Before starting Lytro in 2006, Ren had been extensively studying light field science and computational science. His seminal Ph.D. research on light field technology earned the field’s top honor, the ACM Doctoral Dissertation Award for best thesis in computer science and engineering, as well as Stanford University’s Arthur Samuel Award for

Academic pioneer and co-founder of one of the “most innovative education companies” Dr. Preetha Ram has a passion for creating opportunities for peer-to-peer learning. Dr. Ram is the co- founder of OpenStudy.com, a social learning network for students, recently named one of the 10 “most innovative education companies” by TechCrunch. Her mission is to unite

Explorer of Dolphin Minds Dr. Diana Reiss is one of the world’s leading experts on dolphin intelligence. She is a Professor of Cognitive Psychology at Hunter College and directs a dolphin research program at the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Dr. Reiss is a leading rescuer who served as an adviser for the Oscar-winning film, The

Teenage CEO Making Chemistry Fun Anshul Samar is Founder and CEO, Alchemist Empire, Inc. Four years ago at age 13, Samar introduced Elementeo Chemistry Card Game in an effort to make learning chemistry more fun for students. He is one of the very few teenagers with business cards. Samar has since earned national recognition for

Serial Tech Entrepreneur, Watson Evangelist and Philanthropist Manoj Saxena is the General Manager of Watson Solutions at IBM, a team focused on building a computing system that rivals a human’s ability to answer questions with speed and accuracy. Saxena was named “Entrepreneur of the Year” and “IT Technologist of the Year.” Saxena created The Saxena

Senior Astronomer at SETI Dr. Seth Shostak participates in the search for extraterrestrial life at the SETI Institute. He heads up the International Academy of Astronautics’ SETI Committee, and hosts a weekly radio show, “Big Picture Science”. Shostak has published more than 400 popular articles on science, and his most recent book is Confessions of

Fighting for Online Privacy Dubbed “the Ralph Nader for the Internet Age” by Wired Magazine, Christopher Soghoian is a researcher and advocate focused on improving privacy protections for individuals. He is particularly interested in how companies choose to either resist or facilitate surveillance of their customers. He has used the Freedom of Information Act as

21st Century Journalism Esther Wojcicki (“Woj”) is the Vice Chair of Creative Commons, a groundbreaking initiative to make creative, education, and scientific content instantly more compatible with the full potential of the internet. She is also the driving force behind Palo Alto High School’s journalism program, in which 500 students take part. Esther encourages students

After-School Project: Finding a Cure for Cancer A senior at Monta Vista High School in Cupertino, California, Angela was awarded a $100,000 scholarship in the 2011 Siemens Math, Science and Technology competition for her achievements in cancer research. She is also the winner of more than 20 awards in regional, state, national and international science