Jessica Pryce creates strategies to reduce the impact of racial bias in child protective services.

Adam Savage is an internationally renowned television producer, host and public speaker.

Iraqi-born Zainab Salbi founded and runs Women for Women International, and has dedicated her life to helping women in war-torn regions rebuild their lives and communities.

Bryce Dallas Howard is an actor, director, writer and producer with a deep love of the craft of storytelling.

Dean R. Lomax is a multi-award-winning paleontologist, author and science communicator.

Lynn Rothschild is passionate about the origin and evolution of life on earth or elsewhere -- while at the same time pioneering the use of synthetic biology to enable space exploration.

Author and entrepreneur Rob Reid writes speculative fiction for Random House.

Stacy Smith shows how Hollywood’s homogenous (and overwhelmingly male) culture systematically excludes women and minorities.

Jinsop Lee is an industrial designer who believes that great design appeals to all five senses.

Mick Ebeling founded the Not Impossible Foundation, a nonprofit that develops creative solutions to real-world problems.

Rose George looks deeply into topics that are unseen but fundamental, whether that's sewers or latrines or massive container ships or pirate hostages or menstrual hygiene.

Robert Fischell invented the rechargeable pacemaker, the implantable insulin pump, and devices that warn of epileptic seizures and heart attacks. Yet it's not just his inventive genius that makes him fascinating, but his determination to make the world a better place.

Jessica Shortall is a working mom of two and author of Work. Pump. Repeat: The New Mom's Survival Guide to Breastfeeding and Going Back to Work.

Kim Gorgens studies the brain's response to injury -- and advocates that we mind our (gray) matter.

Sister True Dedication is a Zen Buddhist nun ordained by Thich Nhat Hanh, the editor of several of his books and a leading voice in a new generation of young monastics.

Carina Morillo is an advocate for the social inclusion of people with autism.

"Ethan Hawke has quietly emerged as perhaps our boldest and most distinctive screen actor," writes The New York Times.

Sophal Ear leads research on post-conflict countries -- looking at the effectiveness of foreign aid and the challenge of development in places like his native land, Cambodia.

Immersing himself in alternate lifestyles and hilarious experiments (usually with himself as the guinea pig), writer A.J. Jacobs tests the limits of behavior, customs, culture -- and reports back on the wisdom and practical knowledge he's gained.

Angelo Vermeulen wears many hats, including one as a crew commander for NASA, another as an artist and community organizer.

Haley Van Dyck is building a startup at the White House and recruiting world-class technology talent to change how government works for the American people.

Paul MacCready, an aircraft designer and environmentalist, is a pioneer of human-powered flight, alternative energy for transportation, and environmentally responsible design.

Skylar Tibbits is the founder and codirector of the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT and assistant professor of design research in the department of architecture.

Boniface Mwangi is an award-winning Kenyan photographer, artist and activist. He is a TED Fellow.

Eric Dyer is an artist and educator who brings animation into the physical world with his sequential images, sculptures and installations.

By blending up to 100 still photographs into a seamless composite that captures the transition from day to night, Stephen Wilkes reveals the stories hidden in familiar locations.

Kate Darling investigates the relationship between humans and robots -- now, and in the future.

Asher Hasan's social enterprise Naya Jeevan (the name means "new life" in Urdu and Hindi) is the emerging world's first HMO for the urban, working poor.

An environmentalist and former minister of the environment, Marcelo Mena is helping Chile make a low emission, resilient and inclusive transition to zero emissions by 2050.

Kelsey Johnson has spent her life in awe of the universe, and she works to inspire that awe in future generations.