Three-time Grammy-winning superstar Lizzo has become a household name, with more than four billion global streams and a Platinum debut album.

Özlem Türeci is the cofounder and chief medical officer of BioNTech. She leads the clinical development of "Project Lightspeed," the company's successful effort to develop and distribute an mRNA-based vaccine against COVID-19, a historic achievement completed in less than one year.

Richard Preston wrote The Hot Zone, a classic look at the Ebola virus and the scientists who fight it. His wide-ranging curiosity about science and people has led him to cover a dizzying list of topics, with a lapidary attention to detail and an ear for the human voice.

Abigail Washburn pairs venerable folk elements with far-flung sounds, creating results that feel both strangely familiar and unlike anything anybody's ever heard before.

Winona Guo is a co-founder of CHOOSE and author of "Tell Me Who You Are" (Penguin Random House, June 2019). She will graduate from Harvard College in 2022.

Yassmin Abdel-Magied wears many hats, including a hijab. She's a mechanical engineer, writer and activist who campaigns for tolerance and diversity.

Michael Pollan is the author of "The Omnivore’s Dilemma", in which he explains how our food not only affects our health but has far-reaching political, economic and environmental implications.

Kate Lister is a sex historian and lecturers at Leeds Trinity University.

Margaret Bourdeaux investigates the best ways to protect, recover and reconstruct health systems and institutions disrupted by war or disaster.

Maira Kalman's wise, witty drawings have appeared on numberless New Yorker covers, in a dozen children's books, and throughout the pages of the Elements of Style. Her latest book, The Principles of Uncertainty, is the result of a year-long illustrated blog she kept for the New York Times.

Priya Vulchi is a co-founder of CHOOSE and author of "Tell Me Who You Are" (Penguin Random House, June 2019). She will graduate from Princeton University in 2022.

In her book "The Power of Meaning," Emily Esfahani Smith rounds up the latest research -- and the stories of fascinating people she interviewed -- to argue that the search for meaning is far more fulfilling than the pursuit of personal happiness.

Aspiring Olympic skier Janine Shepherd was nearly killed when she was hit by a truck during a training bike ride. Paralysed and immobile for six months, she was given a grim picture for recovery. But not only did she teach herself to walk again— she learned to fly.

Nikki Webber Allen is working to create a safe space for honest conversations about mental health in communities of color.

Helen Pearson's book, "The Life Project," tells the extraordinary story of the longest-running study of human development in the world.

Andrew Marantz writes narrative journalism about politics, the internet and the way we understand our world.

Joshua Prager’s journalism unravels historical secrets -- and his own.

Amy O'Toole is a 12-year-old student who helped run a science experiment inspired by Beau Lotto's participative science approach. At age 10 she became one of the youngest people ever to publish a peer-reviewed science paper.

Fredy Peccerelli works with families whose loved ones “disappeared” in the 36-year armed conflict in Guatemala. The executive director of the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation, he helps locate bodies and give back identities to those buried in mass graves.

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.

Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch motivated thousands of students with his passionate teaching. Millions more around the world found inspiration in his moving "Last Lecture."

Writer, actor, comedian, Maysoon Zayid is the co-founder of the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival.

Mitchell Katz, CEO of NYC Health + Hospitals, works to eliminate the unfair effects of economic disparities in health care, challenging traditional health care systems to find ways to meet all patients on their own terms.

James Flynn challenges our fundamental assumptions about intelligence.

A billion people around the world lack access to health care because they live too far from a clinic. 2017 TED Prize winner Raj Panjabi aims to extend health services to the last mile.

By educating young people about the difference between healthy and unhealthy relationships, Katie Hood hopes to derail abusive behavior before it starts and impact the relationship health of an entire generation.

Emeli Sandé is a British singer and songwriter.

Sydney Chaffee believes that teachers and students can change the world together.

Charles Anderson studies marine life in the Maldives, a nation of coral atolls in the Indian ocean.

Michael Stevens is the creator and host of Vsauce, an educational YouTube channel that addresses scientific oddities, like "Is Your Red the Same as My Red?"