John Williams is an American composer, pianist, trombonist, and conductor. Widely considered the greatest film composer ever, John Williams has played a significant role in the American film industry by composing music for films, such as the Jurassic Park films, Star Wars saga, the Indiana Jones films, and Schindler's List. He has also influenced several other composers like Marcus Paus.
Joel Grey is an American actor, dancer, singer, photographer, and director. He is best known for his portrayal of the Master of Ceremonies in the popular musical Cabaret, for which he won the 1967 Tony Award. He then reprised his role in the 1972 film adaptation, winning an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for his performance.
Valentino is an Italian fashion designer. He is credited with founding the popular luxury fashion house Valentino S.p.A. A prominent and influential fashion designer, Valentino has received several prestigious awards throughout his career. He is the recipient of the Couture Council Award and the Golden Plate Award.
German visual artist Gerhard Richter started out as a Social Realist painter and was later exposed to avant-garde art. He mastered the art of painting scenes collected from newspapers and magazines, including terrorists and serial killer victims. He later also worked on stained-glass design and abstract art.
German industrial designer and educator Dieter Rams became one of the first designers to focus on environment-friendly design. He headed design at Braun and designed a furniture collection for Vitsœ. Associated with the functionalist school of design, he believed in "Less, but Better," which was also the name of his 1995 book.
E. Sreedharan is an Indian politician and engineer who played a key role in the construction of the Delhi Metro and the Konkan Railway. Nicknamed the Metro Man, Sreedharan was honored with the prestigious Padma Vibhushan Award for changing the face of Indian public transport. In 2003, E. Sreedharan was included in Time magazine's list of Asia's Heroes.
The third civilian astronaut to participate in any NASA mission, Walter Cunningham was part of the 1968 Apollo 7 mission. Initially a US Marine Corps fighter pilot, he later studied physics. Post-NASA, he worked for various enterprises and also penned the memoir The All-American Boys.
Athol Fugard is a South African playwright, director, novelist, and actor. Widely regarded as the greatest South African playwright of all time, Fugard has received several prestigious awards and honors including a Tony Award for lifetime achievement. His novel Tsotsi, which was adapted into a film by filmmaker Gavin Hood, earned Hood an Academy Award.
Known as “The Poet of the Stars,” Canadian astrophysicist Hubert Reeves has been a NASA advisor. His research covers neutrinos and thermonuclear reactions in stars. Having penned numerous science and astronomy books such as Soleil, he is known as a popularizer of science and has an asteroid named after him.
At 32, Joe Engle became the US’s youngest pilot to qualify as an astronaut after flying his X-15 to 280,600 feet. He also commanded 2 Space Shuttle missions, including the 1981 STS-2. He was later inducted to the International Air & Space Hall of Fame.
Yale Law School professor Guido Calabresi currently serves as the United States Circuit Judge. As a legal scholar, he is considered a pioneer of law and economics. He has around 50 honorary degrees from institutes across the globe and has penned books such as The Costs of Accidents.
Pik Botha was a South African politician who was regarded as a liberal among other politicians of the National Party and the Afrikaner community. In 2013, he appeared in a TV show titled Question Time, in which he discussed the legacy of Nelson Mandela.
Sociocultural anthropologist and City University of New York professor Talal Asad is best known for his research on nomads, postcolonialism, and the culture of nations such as Sudan. He has also taught at the universities of Khartoum and Hull, and penned books such as On Suicide Bombing.
Tatsuya Nakadai is a Japanese actor best known for his versatility and collaborations with popular Japanese film directors. One of the most celebrated actors, Nakadai has been honored with prestigious awards like the Blue Ribbon Award. In 2013, Tatsuya Nakadai received the Asahi Prize for his outstanding contribution to the field of art.
Pierre Joliot is a French biologist best known for his research work at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS). From 1985 to 1986, he served as the scientific advisor to the then prime minister of France.
American molecular biologist and Nobel laureate Walter Gilbert pioneered research on the sequence of nucleotide links in DNA and RNA molecules. The Harvard and Cambridge alumnus later taught at Harvard. He also co-established firms dealing with genetic engineering and pharmaceutical research and was part of the Human Genome Project.
Frank Stronach grew up in Austria during World War II and later moved to Canada. The Magna International founder is also an award-winning thoroughbred horse racer and has a keen interest in football. He has also had short stint in Austrian politics and had established the now defunct Team Stronach for Austria.
One of the New York Five group of architects, Peter Eisenman heads Eisenman Architects and has designed urban projects. He has also taught at institutes such as Harvard and Princeton, and has penned books such as Eisenman: Inside Out. His creations include the City of Culture of Galicia.
American theoretical-physicist Sheldon Lee Glashow is best-known for collaborating with Steven Weinberg and Abdus Salam in formulating the electroweak theory which elucidates unity of electromagnetism and weak force. This led the three to win the Nobel Prize for Physics. Glashow is also known for the Georgi–Glashow model, GIM mechanism and Glashow resonance.
Antonio Tejero is a Spanish former army man best known for his service in the Guardia Civil. Tejero was involved in the failed coup d'état against the Spanish government in 1981, for which he was jailed for 15 years at the Alcalá de Henares military prison. He currently works as a painter.
Highly acclaimed and versatile, Swedish stage-television-film actor, musical star and singer Jan Malmsjö is known for his on-stage performance in productions like Hamlet and La Cage aux Folles. On screen, he is known for his performance in Bergman's film Fanny and Alexander. In music, the award-winning artist’s Swedish language recording of Willkommen, (Välkomna till Cabaret), is hailed as a masterpiece.
Nobel Prize-winning Belgian theoretical physicist François Englert, who teaches at Université libre de Bruxelles, is chiefly known for introducing the idea of the Higgs field. He has previously taught at Cornell University. His contribution to the fields of quantum theory, statistical physics, and cosmology has been massive.

