Widely regarded as a national treasure in the United Kingdom, Sir David Attenborough is the only person to have received BAFTAs for TV shows meant for different television sets, such as black and white, color, 3D, HD, and 4K. In 2002, he was mentioned in BBC's 100 Greatest Britons list.
Mel Brooks is the director of iconic comedy films and spoofs like The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, High Anxiety and Spaceballs. He is also an actor and a writer and has written for many films. He has received many awards and accolades and won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay for the film. The Producers, in 1969.
Tony Bennett is an American painter and singer. He is credited with founding the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts, popular performing arts high school. A famous and critically praised concert performer and recording artist, Tony Bennett has sold more than 50 million records worldwide.
Georgia Holt is a retired American actress, singer-songwriter, and former model. After beginning her career as a child singer, Holt started appearing on popular TV shows which increased her popularity. In 2013, Georgia Holt became the subject of a documentary titled Dear Mom, Love Cher, which also featured her famous daughter Cher.
Multiple Grammy-winning legendary opera singer and musical diva Leontyne Price became the first singer of African-American origin who achieved international fame in opera. She soared to fame with her appearance in the TV production of Tosca and later performed at iconic venues, such as London’s Royal Opera House.
Tsung-Dao Lee is a Chinese-American physicist renowned for his work on particle physics, parity violation, soliton stars, nontopological solitons, and the Lee Model. In 1957, he became the third-youngest person to be awarded the prestigious Nobel Prize in the science fields; he won the Nobel Prize in Physics. He is also the first Chinese Nobel laureate.
Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Paul Berg is best known for his research on recombinant DNA techniques. The Stanford professor was born to Russian Jewish immigrants in New York and is a Penn State alumnus. He has also won the National Medal of Science, among other awards.
Former Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade and the current Senegalese Democratic Party secretary-general Abdoulaye Wade had practiced as a lawyer in France for a while after completing his PhD. Following his return to Senegal, he became an academic. His presidency was plagued by charges of corruption and nepotism.
Known for his singular artistic language, underpinned by his extraordinary craftsmanship, Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomodoro developed an interest in art and scenography while working for the Public Works Department. However, it was not until he attended an exhibition of Picasso in 1953 that he decided to devote his life to art, eventually creating many masterpieces including the Sfera con Sfera
Robert Bly was an American poet, activist, and essayist. He is best remembered for leading the mythopoetic men's movement. He is also remembered for his book Iron John: A Book About Men. Robert Bly is also well-known for his work The Light Around the Body, which earned him the National Book Award for Poetry in 1968.
Former Lithuanian president Valdas Adamkus had fought against the Soviet army during World War II. After fleeing to Germany, he studied in Munich and then migrated to the U.S., where he earned a civil engineering degree. Among his many accolades are honorary doctorates from countless foreign universities.
A pioneer in the design of audio recording equipments, Arthur Rupert Neve began his career designing public address systems, recording speakers and singers on lacquer discs. He later started his own business, designing analog recording and audio mixing equipments, .establishing Neve Electronics, Focusrite, AMS Neve, and finally Rupert Neve Designs. Many of his long-discontinued products are now considered collectors' items.
Efraín Ríos Montt was a Guatemalan politician and military officer. From 1982 to 1983, he served as the 26th president of Guatemala. His brief tenure as the de facto president was one of the bloodiest periods during the then-ongoing Guatemalan Civil War. In 2013, he was sentenced to 80 years in prison for crimes against humanity and genocide.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi was an Egyptian scholar based in Qatar. An important influencer in the Muslim world, Al-Qaradawi is best remembered for his program, Sharia and Life. In addition to authoring over 120 books, Yusuf al-Qaradawi also helped found a website known as IslamOnline. Al-Qaradawi is often counted among the most influential Islamic scholars of his generation.
Abel Prize-winning Hungarian-American mathematician Peter Lax is remembered for his pathbreaking research on the partial differential equation and its application. He initilly worked for the US’s Manhattan Project and then taught at the New York University and even became the director of the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
Mathilde Krim was an Israeli medical researcher best known for her association with amfAR, an international nonprofit organization that aims at supporting AIDS research; she was the founding chairman of the organization. For her immense contribution to the field of AIDS research, Mathilde Krim was honored with the prestigious Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2000.
Yury Grigorovich is a Soviet and Russian choreographer and dancer. One of the most popular and successful ballet dancers of his generation, Grigorovich dominated the Russian ballet scene for over three decades. Grigorovich has also headed the juries of several international competitions in classical ballet. He has also received several awards, such as the Lenin Prize and Ludvig Nobel Prize.
Andrew Schally escaped Poland and went to Romania and the UK with his family following the Nazi invasion, eventually settling in Canada. He grew up to be a renowned endocrinologist and won the Nobel Prize for his research on the hypothalamus and how it controls the hormones in the body.
Robert Orben is an American comedy writer and magician. Over the years Orben has written several books on comedy as part of his popular newsletter Orben's Current Comedy. He has also written many books for magicians. A multi-talented personality, Robert Orben served as the head speechwriter to politician and then-Vice President Gerald R. Ford in 1973.
Currently Professor Emeritus of Systematic Theology, German Reformed theologian, Jürgen Moltmann, is especially known for developing a form of social trinitarianism. Describing his views as Post-Barthian, he has penned down numerous works including Theology of Hope, The Crucified God, God in Creation etc. He is of the view that God suffers with humanity, while also promising a better future through the hope of the Resurrection