FANATICAL TEACHERS: “When I was in my 20s and early 30s, I was fanatical about software,” Bill Gates penned Tuesday on his blog, gatesnotes. By ‘fanatical,’ the tech billionaire means to say devoted, inspired, and by some measures, obsessed. “I was so focused on my vision of putting a computer on every desk and in every home that I gave up a normal existence. I didn’t take vacations or weekends off.”
With days of running Microsoft now in his past, Gates says much of his work today surrounds learning from (and investing in) other fanatics. To inspire us over the holidays, he’s listed a few of his favorites from 2016. Here's who made the lineup:
- Jimmy Carter (Former U.S. President, United Nations Human Rights Prize and the Nobel Peace Prize recipient): “At 92, Jimmy Carter hasn’t slowed down. For most, being President of the United States would be the highpoint of their public lives. For Jimmy Carter, it was just the start of a long career dedicated to human rights causes.”
- Nate Bowling (Washington State Teacher of the Year): “Nate teaches AP Government and AP Human Geography at Lincoln High School in Tacoma… Many students at high-poverty schools like Lincoln struggle and do not graduate ready for college or high paying jobs. Thanks to Nate and his colleagues, Lincoln is bucking that trend.”
- Nandan Nilekani (Entrepreneur and former Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India): “Nandan Nilekani [is] one of India’s best-known entrepreneurs, philanthropists, and thinkers… Nandan is dreaming up ways to use this platform to help improve the lives of the world’s poorest. He and his wife, Rohini, have set up EkStep, a non-profit that uses smartphone-based apps to help children with early learning.”
- Ana Mari Cauce (President, University of Washington): “[Dr. Cauce] saw the need to help the university’s medical school, school of public health, the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, environmental scientists, and dozens of other partners to collaborate together more effectively around common health-related goals. The effort, called the Population Health Initiative, has incredible potential to unlock the power of health research and data for the benefit of all.”
- Ken Caldeira (Climate Scientist, Carnegie Institution for Science): “[Caldeira’s] official job title requires him ‘to make important scientific discoveries.’ And he has. He is a pioneer in exploring the impact of human activity on our climate. His experiments have given us the strongest evidence to date that ocean acidification is already harming coral reef growth.”
