Danielle Bassett is a physicist who models brains.
Age: 32
City: Philadelphia
Bassett's research has used breakthroughs in network science — which studies how people affect one another — to gain a deeper understanding of how brain regions communicate.
Alison Bechdel makes incredible graphic novels that explore the nature of the family, like her 2006 breakout 'Fun Home.'
Age: 54
City: Bolton, Vermont
Bechdel has expanded the scope of the graphic novel, using the comic book format to make deep inquiries into the nature of family, gender, and maturity.
Mary L. Bonauto is a civil rights lawyer fighting for equal legal treatment for any sexual orientation or gender identity.
Age: 53
City: Boston
Bonauto has won cases that have changed gay-exclusionary laws for over 15 years, and she continues to serve as the Civil Rights Project Director at Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders.
Tami Bond is a University of Illinois environmental engineer investigating carbon emissions.
Age: 50
City: Urbana, Illinois
Bond has dedicated her life to understanding something most of us avoid: black carbon emissions, or soot. Her research is laying the groundwork for the cleaning up our cities' air.
Steve Coleman is a jazz composer expanding the bounds of his genre.
Age: 57
City: Allentown, Penn.
Coleman is a pioneer in one of the most pioneering forms of music: jazz. His 2013 album "Functional Arrhythmias" drew inspiration from the sounds of the human body, and he also cofounded a musician mentorship program.
Sarah Deer is a legal scholar developing policies to empower Native American women.
Age: 41
City: Saint Paul, Minn.
Deer's research and advocacy has given Native American communities the ability to better defend womens' rights.
Jennifer L. Eberhardt is a Stanford social psychologist investigating how people racially code one another.
Age: 49
City: Stanford, Calif.
Eberhardt's research dives into how people unconsciously categorize one another in social interactions. Her work is already being used by police forces to improve their police work.
Craig Gentry is an IBM computer scientist making breakthroughs in encryption.
Age: 49
City: Stanford, Calif.
Gentry's research — including solving a crypto logical problem from 1978 that people thought was impossible — is making the cloud more secure.
Terrance Hayes is a University of Pittsburgh poet whose work plays in the constructs of race, gender, and family.
Age: 42
City: Pittsburgh, Penn.
In his collections "Wind in a Box" and the National Book Award-winning "Lighthead," Hayes' verses challenge and reinterpret poetical traditions.
John Henneberger is a housing advocate who has helped making housing accessible in Texas and beyond.
Age: 59
City: Austin, Texas
Henneberger has spearheaded housing reform in Texas, helping shape the legal methods through which the state governments rebuilds after disasters. He also issued a challenge to architects to create cheaper, better housing than FEMA.
Mark Hersam is a Northwestern University materials scientist doing leading research into nanomaterials.
Age: 39
City: Evanston, Ill.
Hersam fuses materials science, engineering, and chemistry in his study of hybrid organic-inorganic materials.
Samuel D. Hunter is a playwright whose work explores the role of isolation in American life.
Age: 33
City: New York
Hunter has become one of America's leading young playwrights, creating drama that uses his small-town Idaho upbringing as a lens for understanding the country's social dynamics. He premiered three plays in the 2013-14 season: "The Few," "Rest," and "A Great Wilderness."
Pamela O. Long is a historian of science exploring Renaissance societies.
Age: 71
City: Washington, DC
Long's books — "Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance" and "Artisan/Practitioners and the Rise of the New Sciences, 1400–1600" — reveal the intricate relationships between writers, artisans, and scientists during the Renaissance.
Rick Lowe is a public artist working to revive Houston neighborhoods.
Age: 53
City: Houston
Lowe is equal parts artist and community organizer. His "Project Row Houses" turned rowhouses in a poor Houston neighborhood into a community center and art space.
Jacob Lurie is a Harvard mathematician who is creating new forms of math.
Age: 36
City: Cambridge, Mass.
Lurie is at the frontier of mathematics, laying the foundation for "derived algebraic geometry" in his treatise "Higher Topos Theory."
Khaled Mattawa is a University of Michigan professor translating Arabic poetry.
Age: 50
City: Ann Arbor, Mich.
Mattawa is doing many of the first translations of major Arabic poets, like Amjad Nasser of Jordan, Saadi Youssef of Iraq, and Adonis of Syria.
Joshua Oppenheimer is a documentary filmmaker tackling state-sponsored violence and other difficult topics.
Age: 39
City: Copenhagen, Denmark
Oppenheimer is one of the most influential documentarians alive. His 2012 film "The Act of Killing" forced audiences to become familiar with state-sponsored massacres, while his other films have documented religious extremists and sci-fi fans.
Ai-jen Poo is a labor organizer who has helped empower America's 1-2 million domestic workers.
Age: 40
City: New York
Poo led Domestic Workers United, an organization of nannies, housekeepers, and elderly caregivers, from 2000 to 2009. Her efforts help pass the 2010 New York Domestic Workers’ Bill of Rights, which entitled workers to overtime pay, a day off every week, and protection from discrimination.
Jonathan Rapping is a criminal lawyer whose Gideon’s Promise organization trains public defenders.
Age: 48
City: Atlanta
Rapping saw that public advocates were being overloaded with cases and shortchanging on training, so he started an organization to train young PAs. Founded in 2007, his Gideon’s Promise program has over 300 participants in 15 states.
Tara Zahra is a University of Chicago professor who is enriching our understanding of modern European history, particularly through the lens of children.
Age: 38
City: Chicago
Through her books "Kidnapped Souls: National Indifference and the Battle for Children in the Bohemian Lands, 1900–1948" and "The Lost Children: Reconstructing Europe’s Families after World War II," Zahra has written modern history from an oft-neglected vantage point: children.
Yitang Zhang is a University of New Hampshire mathematician who uncovered a new fundamental property of prime numbers.
Age: 59
City: Durham, N.H.
Zhang's theoretical work has established the "bounded prime gap." His new paper "shows that there is some number N smaller than 70 million such that there are infinitely many pairs of primes that differ by N," which is big news in math.