(Introduction by Leslie Berlowitz)
James Earl Jones, Pawling, New York. Actor. Shakespearian-trained actor with distinguished roles in theater, film, and television. Received a Tony Award for The Great White Hope (1969) and Fences (1987), and four Emmy Awards for outstanding work on television. Acclaimed performances in Othello, Macbeth, and King Lear. Recognized as the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars trilogy and Mufasa in The Lion King (1994). With the Verizon Foundation’s Literacy Initiative, traveled across the country reading to children and talking to them about the importance of reading. Appointed to the James Madison Council of the Library of Congress (1993). Recipient of a Kennedy Center Honor (2002). (9 min.)

(Introduction by Arthur Gelb)
Terence Tao, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California. Professor of Mathematics. Recipient of the Fields Medal in 2006. Made fundamental contributions to harmonic analysis, partial differential equations, combinatoric, analytic number theory, and representation theory. In analysis, his results on the Kakeya conjecture are well known. In number theory, he proved, with Green, that there exist arbitrarily long arithmetic progressions of prime numbers. (8 min.)

(Introduction by Gordon Gill)
Elizabeth G. Nabel, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland. Director, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Developed gene transfer technology to express recombinant genes in blood vessels and delineated mechanisms by which cell cycle and growth factor proteins regulate vascular proliferation and inflammation, processes critical to cardiovascular diseases. Advances programs in genomics of complex diseases, stem/progenitor cell biology, translation, and global heath. (11 min.)

(Introduction by Linda Greenhouse)
Ronald Marc George, Supreme Court of California, San Francisco, California, Chief Justice. Former President of the Conference of Chief Justices and lecturer on judicial independence. Reorganized and strengthened the structure and financing of the California courts. Recipient of national awards including the William H. Rehnquist Award for Judicial Excellence and the American Judicature Society’s Dwight D. Opperman Award for Judicial Excellence. (15 min.)

(Introduction by Carol Gluck)
Edward Villella, Miami City Ballet, Miami, Florida, Founding Artistic Director and Chief Executive Officer. Former principal dancer for the New York City Ballet. Originated roles in George Balanchine’s Rubies, Tarantella, Bugaku, Symphony in Three Movements, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Jerome Robbins’s Dances at a Gathering and Watermill. Most famous role is Prodigal Son. Autobiography, Prodigal Son: Dancing for Balanchine in a World of Pain and Magic, published in 1992. Producer/Director for PBS series Dance in America; 1975 Emmy Award for Harlequinade; former Chair, New York City’s Commission for Cultural Affairs. (12 min.)

(Introduction by Alan M. Dachs)
Kent Kresa, Northrop Grumman Corporation, Beverly Hills, California, Chairman Emeritus. Served as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Northrop Grumman from 1990 to 2003, and as President from 1987 to 2001. Credited with providing the leadership that transformed the corporation into a top enterprise. Serves on many boards, including as Chairman of the Board of the California Institute of Technology, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, and the Avery Dennison Corporation. (12 min.)