Features

35 Who Made a Difference: Wynton Marsalis

In Katrina's aftermath, the trumpeter has rallied support for his native New Orleans

35 Who Made a Difference: Bill Gates

The king of software takes on his biggest challenge yet

35 Who Made a Difference: Mark Plotkin

An ethnobotanist takes up the cause of rain forest conservation

35 Who Made a Difference: Richard Leakey

The leader of the Hominid Gang asks what he can do for his continent

35 Who Made a Difference: Clyde Roper

He's spent his life chasing a sea monster that's never been taken alive

35 Who Made a Difference: Jane Mt. Pleasant

Iroquois tradition plus Western science equals a more sustainable future

35 Who Made a Difference: Andy Goldsworthy

Using nature as his canvas, the artist creates works of transcendent beauty

35 Who Made a Difference: Robert Langridge

His quest to peer into the essence of life no longer seems so strange

35 Who Made a Difference: Daphne Sheldrick

When feelings of kinship transcend the species boundary

35 Who Made a Difference: Julie Taymor

Transcending genres, the designer and director creates shamanistic theater

35 Who Made a Difference: Wendell Berry

A Kentucky poet draws inspiration from the land that sustains him

35 Who Made a Difference: Edward O. Wilson

Vindicated for his controversial sociobiology? Yes. Satisfied? Not yet

35 Who Made a Difference: John Dobson

Come one, come all. Share the sky with the father of sidewalk astronomy

35 Who Made a Difference: Mark Lehner

He took the blue-collar approach to the great monuments of Egypt

35 Who Made a Difference: Sally Ride

A generation later, the first female astronaut is still on a mission

35 Who Made a Difference: D. A. Henderson

Eradicating one of history's deadliest diseases was just the beginning

35 Who Made a Difference: Renée Fleming

The soprano is renowned for her beguiling voice and presence

35 Who Made a Difference: David Attenborough

The natural history filmmaker has brought serious science to a global audience

35 Who Made a Difference: Tim Berners-Lee

First he wrote the code for the World Wide Web. Then he gave it away

35 Who Made a Difference: James Watson

After DNA, what could he possibly do for an encore?

35 Who Made a Difference: Wes Jackson

In Kansas, a plant geneticist sows the seeds of sustainable agriculture

35 Who Made a Difference: Maya Angelou

By singing of her own hardships, she has given strength to others

35 Who Made a Difference: Yo-Yo Ma

Humanitarian, globe-trotting teacher, good sport, ice-dancing fan and heckuva nice guy. Oh, and he plays the cello

35 Who Made a Difference: Ed Bearss

On any battlefield, he strikes the mystic chords of memory

35 Who Made a Difference: Frank Gehry

The architect's daring, outside-the-box buildings have revitalized urban spaces

35 Who Made a Difference: Janis Carter

The primate who taught other primates how to survive in the wild

35 Who Made a Difference: Robert Moses

A former civil rights activist revolutionizes the teaching of mathematics

35 Who Made a Difference: Maya Lin

The architect melds surface simplicity and underlying intellectual complexity into works of enduring power

35 Who Made a Difference: Douglas Owsley

Dead people tell no tales—but their bones do, when he examines them

35 Who Made a Difference: Steven Spielberg

A renowned director contemplates the lessons of history

Innovators of Our Time

We mark Smithsonian's 35th anniversary by revisiting scientists, artists and scholars who've enriched the magazine—and our lives

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