Naoko Ishii leads the Global Environment Facility (GEF), a public financial institution that provides around US$1 billion every year to help tackle our planet’s most pressing environmental problems.

Shekhar Kapur is a visionary filmmaker and storyteller who works at the intersection of art, myth and activism.

After creating and conducting a worldwide virtual choir on YouTube, Eric Whitacre is now touring with an astonishing live choir.

Harvard Medical School psychologist Susan David studies emotional agility: the psychology of how we can use emotion to bring forward our best selves in all aspects of how we love, live, parent and lead.

In her warm, glorious voice, Eddi Reader sings thoughtful songs about love, longing and introspection.

Chuck Nice is a radio and TV veteran with a passion for science communication and comedy.

With her viral talk from TED2012 and her mega-bestseller "Quiet," Susan Cain urged society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us. Now, with her new bestseller "Bittersweet," she's back to explore the surprising lessons sorrow and longing teach us about creativity, connection and love.

Dan Berkenstock and his team at Skybox Imaging are rethinking how to take photographs from space.

Alex Laskey helps power companies to help their customers cut down -- using data analysis, marketing and a pinch of psychology.

Rebeca Hwang is co-founder and managing director of Rivet Ventures, investing in solutions for women and empowering their choices.

Fabien Cousteau spent 31 days underwater to research how climate change and pollution are affecting the oceans.

When a freak tornado hit her Massachusetts hometown, Caitria O’Neill wasn't an expert in disaster relief recovery. But she learned quickly and is now passing her knowledge on through the website Recovers.org.

Tom Schuler has spent three decades advancing sustainable innovation across global industries.

Susan Solomon enables support for human stem cell research, aiming to cure major diseases and empower more personalized medicine.

Zachariah Mampilly is an expert on the politics of both violent and non-violent resistance.

Shane Koyczan makes spoken-word poetry and music. His poem "To This Day" is a powerful story of bullying and survival, illustrated by animators from around the world.

An illustrator and graphic journalist with a background in social work, Wendy MacNaughton believes drawing is an essential tool to help everyone -- young and old -- slow down, look closely and connect with one another.

James B. Glattfelder aims to give us a richer, data-driven understanding of the people and interactions that control our global economy. He does this not to push an ideology -- but with the hopes of making the world a better place.

The beloved Mr. Sulu from the original Star Trek, George Takei is an activist for human rights (and a master of Facebook memes).

Darrick Hamilton crafts and implements innovative routes and policies that break down social hierarchy and move society towards greater equity, inclusion and civic participation.

Writer and thinker David Brooks has covered business, crime and politics over a long career in journalism.

In 2019, Victor Vescovo could become the first person to have climbed to the highest point of all the world's continents as well as descended to the deepest reaches of all its oceans, including the Challenger Deep.

Paul Pholeros was a director of Healthabitat, a longstanding effort to improve the health of indigenous people by improving their living housing.

Aziz Abu Sarah helps people break down cultural and historical barriers through tourism.

Penny Chisholm studies an extremely tiny microorganism that plays an enormous role in ocean ecosystems. Discovered only three decades ago, it has defined her career and inspired her to think differently about life on Earth.

Jeff Skoll was the first president of eBay; he used his dot-com fortune to found the film house Participant Productions, making movies to inspire social change, including Syriana; Good Night, and Good Luck; Murderball; An Inconvenient Truth ...

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

Caroline Casey works relentlessly to bring out a global shift in business inclusion, and ensure that everyone can live their life without limit or labels.

Photography is about creating images by recording light. At the MIT media lab, professor Ramesh Raskar and his team members have invented a camera that can photograph light itself as it moves at, well, the speed of light.

Charmian Gooch is the 2014 TED Prize winner. At Global Witness, she exposes how a global architecture of corruption is woven into the extraction and exploitation of natural resources.