James McPherson WF ‘58, the George Henry Davis ’86 Professor of American History Emeritus at Princeton University,  has made it his mission to bridge the gap between the academic and general audience studies of the American Civil War. Dr. McPherson won the 1989 Pulitzer Prize for Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era. He is the author of numerous other books focusing on the American Civil War and Reconstruction, including The Struggle for Equality, which won the Anisfield-Wolf Award in 1965. Two of his books won Lincoln Prizes: For Cause and Comrades in 1998, and Tried by War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief in 2009 Lincoln Prize. In 2002, Dr. McPherson published Fields of Fury, a history of the Civil War for children. Read more about Dr. McPherson’s career and commitment to bringing historical scholarship to the public here.

Jill Lepore CN ’93 is the David Woods Kemper ’41 Professor of American History at Harvard University. She is also a staff writer at The New Yorker. As a wide-ranging and prolific essayist, Lepore writes about American history, law, literature, and politics. She is the author of many award-winning books. Read more about Dr. Lepore and her 2018 book These Truths here.

Joseph H. Taylor, Jr. WF ’63, Co-recipient of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Physics “for the discovery of a new type of pulsar;” 1981 MacArthur Fellow; Dean of the Faculty/James S. McDonnell Distinguished Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Princeton University.

William D. Phillips WF ’70, Co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics (with Steven Chu WF ’70) “for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light;” Fellow, National Institute of Standards and Technology; 1996 Albert A. Michelson Medal, The Franklin Institute.

John C. Mather WF ’68, Co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics “for discovery of the blackbody form and anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation;” Senior Project Scientist, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; 2006 Gruber Foundation Prize in Cosmology; Project scientist for the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST); Read an article with Dr. Mather from the WW newsletter here.

H. Robert Horvitz WF ’68, Co-recipient of the 2002 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for discoveries concerning ‘genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death;” David H. Koch Professor; Member, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT; Gruber Foundation Genetics Prize winner; Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Roald Hoffmann WF ’58, Co-recipient of the 1981 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his theory concerning the course of chemical reactions;” Frank H.T. Rhodes Professor in Humane Letters, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Cornell University; Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

James J. Heckman WF ’65, Co-recipient of the 2000 Nobel Prize in Economics “for his development of theory and methods for analyzing selective samples;” Henry Schultz Distinguished Service Professor of Economics, The University of Chicago; Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Steven Chu WF ’70,Co-recipient of the 1997 Nobel Prize in Physics (with William D. Phillips WF ’70) “for development of methods to cool and trap atoms with laser light;” William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor of Physics and Professor of Molecular & Cellular Physiology, Stanford University Medical School; 12th United States Secretary of Energy; Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Kip S. Thorne WF ’62 is the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics, Emeritus at Caltech. He is a recipient of the 2017 Nobel Prize in Physics, together with his colleagues, for “decisive contributions to the LIGO detector and the observation of gravitational waves.” Other recognition for his work on gravitation waves includes: the Special Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics, the Shaw Prize, the Gruber Prize in Cosmology, the Tomalla Prize, the Georges Lemaître Prize, and, the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics. Science called it “the breakthrough of the year.” Read more about Dr. Thorne here.