| Name | Occupation | Birth | Death | Known for |
|---|
| Walter Abish |
Author |
24-Dec-1931 |
|
Alphabetical Africa |
| Fouad Ajami |
Author |
9-Sep-1945 |
|
Director of Middle East Studies, SAIS |
| Jacques d'Amboise |
Dancer |
28-Jul-1934 |
|
Founder of the National Dance Institute |
| Allison Anders |
Film Director |
16-Nov-1954 |
|
Grace of My Heart |
| John Ashbery |
Poet |
28-Jul-1927 |
|
Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror |
| Milton Babbitt |
Composer |
10-May-1916 |
29-Jan-2011 |
Music for Synthesizer |
| Jacqueline K. Barton |
Chemist |
7-May-1952 |
|
Professor of Chemistry at CalTech |
| Regina Benjamin |
Doctor |
26-Oct-1956 |
|
US Surgeon General |
| Tim Berners-Lee |
Computer Programmer |
8-Jun-1955 |
|
Inventor of the World Wide Web |
| Kai Bird |
Historian |
1951 |
|
American Prometheus |
| Ran Blake |
Pianist |
20-Apr-1935 |
|
Third Stream composer |
| James Blinn |
Computer Programmer |
c. 1948 |
|
3D computer imaging pioneer |
| Harold Bloom |
Critic |
11-Jul-1930 |
|
Literary critic, Yale professor |
| Anthony Braxton |
Jazz Musician |
4-Jun-1945 |
|
Inventive jazz multi-instrumentalist |
| Joseph Brodsky |
Poet |
24-May-1940 |
28-Jan-1996 |
"Social parasite" turned Poet Laureate |
| Octavia Butler |
Novelist |
22-Jun-1947 |
24-Feb-2006 |
Patternmaster |
| Caroline Bynum |
Historian |
1941 |
|
Medieval historian |
| Stanley Cavell |
Philosopher |
1-Sep-1926 |
|
Professor of Aesthetics, Harvard |
| Sandra Cisneros |
Author |
20-Dec-1954 |
|
The House on Mango Street |
| Stanley Crouch |
Columnist |
14-Dec-1945 |
|
Jazz critic |
| Merce Cunningham |
Dancer |
16-Apr-1919 |
26-Jul-2009 |
Merce Cunningham Dance Company |
| Guy Davenport |
Author |
23-Nov-1927 |
4-Jan-2005 |
Thasos and Ohio |
| Persi Diaconis |
Mathematician |
31-Jan-1945 |
|
Science of random numbers |
| Jared Diamond |
Scientist |
10-Sep-1937 |
|
Collapse of societies |
| Sidney D. Drell |
Physicist |
13-Sep-1926 |
|
In the Shadow of the Bomb |
| Paul R. Ehrlich |
Scientist |
29-May-1932 |
|
The Population Bomb |
| Aaron L. Friedberg |
Government |
16-Apr-1956 |
|
In the Shadow of the Garrison State |
| Saul Friedländer |
Historian |
11-Oct-1932 |
|
Holocaust historian |
| William Gaddis |
Novelist |
29-Dec-1922 |
16-Dec-1998 |
A Frolic of His Own |
| Ernest J. Gaines |
Novelist |
15-Jan-1933 |
|
A Lesson Before Dying |
| Henry Louis Gates, Jr. |
Author |
16-Sep-1950 |
|
The Signifying Monkey |
| Todd Gitlin |
Educator |
6-Jan-1943 |
|
Journalism professor, social critic |
| Stephen Jay Gould |
Biologist |
10-Sep-1941 |
20-May-2002 |
Evolutionary scientist |
| Pedro José Greer, Jr. |
Doctor |
15-Jun-1956 |
|
Gastroenterologist, RAND Trustee |
| Thom Gunn |
Poet |
29-Aug-1929 |
25-Apr-2004 |
The Man with Night Sweats |
| Rosanne Haggerty |
Administrator |
c. 1960 |
|
Common Ground Community |
| John Hollander |
Poet |
28-Oct-1929 |
|
Powers of Thirteen |
| Irving Howe |
Critic |
11-Jun-1920 |
5-May-1993 |
Editor of Dissent |
| Bill Irwin |
Actor |
11-Apr-1950 |
|
My Blue Heaven |
| Deborah S. Jin |
Physicist |
c. 1968 |
|
Created a fermionic condensate |
| Edward P. Jones |
Author |
1951 |
|
The Known World |
| William Kennedy |
Novelist |
16-Jan-1928 |
|
Ironweed and The Cotton Club |
| Jim Yong Kim |
Educator |
8-Dec-1959 |
|
President of Dartmouth College |
| Jonathan Lethem |
Author |
19-Feb-1964 |
|
Gun with Occasional Music |
| Cormac McCarthy |
Novelist |
20-Jul-1933 |
|
All the Pretty Horses |
| Barbara McClintock |
Scientist |
16-Jun-1902 |
2-Sep-1992 |
Discovered transposable genes |
| James M. McPherson |
Historian |
11-Oct-1936 |
|
US Civil War historian |
| Robert K. Merton |
Sociologist |
4-Jul-1910 |
23-Feb-2003 |
On the Shoulders of Giants |
| Arthur Mitchell |
Dancer |
27-Mar-1934 |
|
Dance Theatre of Harlem |
| Errol Morris |
Film Director |
5-Feb-1948 |
|
Documentary filmmaker |
| Conlon Nancarrow |
Composer |
27-Oct-1912 |
10-Aug-1997 |
Studies for Player Piano |
| Patrick Noonan |
Activist |
c. 1943 |
|
Chairman of the Conservation Fund |
| Douglas D. Osheroff |
Physicist |
1-Aug-1945 |
|
Superfluidity of helium-3 |
| David C. Page |
Biologist |
6-Jul-1956 |
|
Director, Whitehead Institute |
| Elaine Pagels |
Historian |
13-Feb-1943 |
|
The Gnostic Gospels |
| Richard Powers |
Novelist |
18-Jun-1957 |
|
The Gold Bug Variations |
| Martin Puryear |
Sculptor |
23-May-1941 |
|
Post-minimalist |
| Thomas Pynchon |
Novelist |
8-May-1937 |
|
Gravity's Rainbow |
| James Randi |
Magician |
7-Aug-1928 |
|
The Amazing Randi |
| Richard Rhodes |
Historian |
4-Jul-1937 |
|
The Making of the Atomic Bomb |
| Adrienne Rich |
Poet |
16-May-1929 |
27-Mar-2012 |
An Atlas of the Difficult World |
| Adam G. Riess |
Astronomer |
1969 |
|
Accelerating expansion of the universe |
| Alice Rivlin |
Economist |
4-Mar-1931 |
|
Founding director, Congressional Budget Office |
| Richard Rorty |
Philosopher |
4-Oct-1931 |
8-Jun-2007 |
Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature |
| Carl Safina |
Author |
23-May-1955 |
|
Song for the Blue Ocean |
| Pamela Samuelson |
Educator |
c. 1949 |
|
Computer Law Professor at UC Berkeley |
| George Saunders |
Author |
2-Dec-1958 |
|
In Persuasion Nation |
| John Sayles |
Film Director |
28-Sep-1950 |
|
The Secret of Roan Inish |
| Nathan Seiberg |
Physicist |
22-Sep-1956 |
|
String theorist at Princeton |
| Charles Simic |
Poet |
9-May-1938 |
|
The World Doesn't End |
| David Simon |
Author |
1960 |
|
The Wire |
| Anna Deavere Smith |
Actor |
18-Sep-1950 |
|
Nancy McNally on The West Wing |
| Susan Sontag |
Author |
16-Jan-1933 |
28-Dec-2004 |
Novelist, critic, intellectual |
| Jonathan D. Spence |
Historian |
11-Aug-1936 |
|
The Search for Modern China |
| Richard Stallman |
Computer Programmer |
16-Mar-1953 |
|
Founder, GNU software project |
| Mark Strand |
Poet |
11-Apr-1934 |
|
U.S. Poet Laureate 1990-91 |
| Terence Tao |
Mathematician |
17-Jul-1975 |
|
Prolific math prodigy |
| Cecil Taylor |
Jazz Musician |
15-Mar-1929 |
|
Avant-garde jazz pianist |
| Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. |
Astronomer |
24-Mar-1941 |
|
Co-Discovered first binary pulsar |
| Julie Taymor |
Film Director |
15-Dec-1952 |
|
Across the Universe |
| Twyla Tharp |
Dancer |
1-Jul-1941 |
|
Choreographer |
| Amos Tversky |
Psychologist |
16-Mar-1937 |
2-Jun-1996 |
Cognitive psychologist, studied risks |
| Kirk Varnedoe |
Curator |
19-Jan-1946 |
15-Aug-2003 |
Curator at MOMA, 1988-2001 |
| Gregory Vlastos |
Philosopher |
27-Jul-1907 |
12-Oct-1991 |
Influential scholar of ancient philosophy |
| Derek Walcott |
Poet |
23-Jan-1930 |
|
In a Green Night |
| David Foster Wallace |
Novelist |
21-Feb-1962 |
12-Sep-2008 |
Infinite Jest |
| Robert Penn Warren |
Poet |
24-Apr-1905 |
15-Sep-1989 |
First US Poet Laureate |
| Andrew Wiles |
Mathematician |
11-Apr-1953 |
|
Proved Fermat's Last Theorem |
| Patricia J. Williams |
Scholar |
28-Aug-1951 |
|
The Alchemy of Race and Rights |
| William Julius Wilson |
Sociologist |
20-Dec-1935 |
|
Poverty in America's inner cities |
| Edward Witten |
Physicist |
26-Aug-1951 |
|
String theorist at Princeton |
| Stephen Wolfram |
Mathematician |
29-Aug-1959 |
|
Creator of Mathematica |
| Mark S. Wrighton |
Educator |
1949 |
|
Chancellor, Washington University in St. Louis |
| Charles Wuorinen |
Composer |
9-Jun-1938 |
|
Time's Encomium |
