Former U.S. Representative (R-WY)
Former U.S. Congressman (R-IL), CNN Commentator
2021-2022 NICHOLAS CHRISTAKIS Public Program
Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science, Yale University
2020-2021 NINA TOTENBERG
NPR Legal Affairs Correspondent
2019-2020: NONE SELECTED
2018-2019: NONE SELECTED
Former U.S. Ambassador to France. Former Chief Executive Officer and a Founding Principal of Observatory Group. Former Chief Executive Officer of the G7 Group. Presidential appointee to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service. Member of the Boards of Overseers and Managers of Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
The Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in the Department of Sociology, Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and Department of Population, Family, and Reproductive Health, Bloomberg School of Public Health at John Hopkins University. Trustee of the Russell Sage Foundation. Founding member of the MacArthur Foundation-funded Network on Housing and Families with Young Children.
2015-2016: NONE SELECTED
The Ibn Khaldun Chair of Islamic Studies at American University in Washington, D.C. Trustee for the World Faiths Development Dialogue. Former Pakistani High Commissioner to the U.K. and Ireland. Former Commissioner in Baluchistan and Political Agent in the Tribal Areas.
Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School. Former Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama Administration from 2009-2012.
2010 Recipient of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize In Economic Sciences In Memory Of Alfred Nobel along with Dale T. Mortensen And Christopher A. Pissarides. Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard University. Former Director for the Center for American Political Studies and Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. First female sociologist to be offered tenure at Harvard University. Founder and Co-Editor of Princeton Studies in American Politics: Historical, Comparative, and International Perspectives.
University Professor of Economics and Director of Earth Institute at Columbia University Special Adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
2009-2010: NONE SELECTED
2008-2009: RICHARD C. HOLBROOKE
Assistant Secretary of State for Asia from 1977 to 1981 and Assistant Secretary of State for Europe from 1994 to 1996. The Obama Administration's Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan from 2009 until his death in 2010. Instrumental in the creation of the 1995 Dayton Peace Accords ending the war in Bosnia.
2007-2008: NONE SELECTED
2006-2007: NONE SELECTED
2005-2006 HERNANDO DE SOTO
Founder and president of Peru's Institute for Liberty and Democracy (ILD), a leading think tank. Named one of five leading Latin American innovators of the century by Time magazine, in its May 1999 issue on "Leaders for the New Millennium".
2004-2005: HOWARD DEAN
79th Governor of Vermont (1991-2003). Chair of the Democratic National Committee (2005-2009). 76th Lieutenant Governor of Vermont (1987-1991). Chair of the National Governors Association (1994-1995).
2003-2004: EL HASSAH BIN TAKAK
Prince Hassan bin Takak of Jordan served as the keynote speaker for the Rockefeller Center's "Democracy, Public Opinion, and the Middle East" series.
2003-2004: STEPHEN BREYER
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1994-). Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1990-1994). Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit (1980-1994).
2002-2003: MARY ROBINSON
President of the Mary Robinson Foundation Climate Justice and Chair of the Board of Trustees. First female President of Ireland (1990-1997). Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (1997-2002). Founder and President of Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative (2002-2010).
2001-2002: EHUD BARAK
Former Israeli Special Forces Commando, IDF Chief of Staff and Israeli government minister, including Prime Minister.
2000-2001: LAURA D'ANDREA TYSON
Professor of Business Administration and Economics, and former dean, at the Haas School of Business University of California Berkeley and London Business School. Former Chair of the President's Council of Economic Advisers. Former Director of the White House National Economic Council.
1999-2000: GEORGE MITCHELL
Former Executive Assistant to Democratic Senator Edmund Muskie of Maine and former Senator Majority Leader. Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his work in negotiating a peace agreement in Northern Ireland.
1998-1999: OSCAR ARIAS SANCHEZ
Former President of Costa Rica. Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize 1987 for his work in the peace accords signed in Guatemala in 1987. Former Minister of National Planning and Political Economy, International Secretary, and General Secretary if Costa Rica.
1998-1999: WOLE SOYINKA
The first African Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1986.
1997-1998: MAIREAD CORRIGAN MAGUIRE
Founder of the Northern Ireland Peace Movement. 1976 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
1996-1997: CORNEL WEST
Professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard University. Influential intellectual on the intersection of race, class and gender in American society.
1996-1997: STEPHEN JAY GOULD
Professor of Evolutionary Theory at Harvard University whose theories revolutionized the his field.
1995-1996: CARL SAGAN
Influential astronomer and former director of, and later professor, at Cornell's Laboratory for Planetary Studies in 1968. Author of the 1977 Pulitzer Prize Winner The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence. Co-founder of the Planetary Society, a nonprofit organization dedicated to space exploration.
1994-1995: ELIE WIESEL
Holocaust survivor and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize 1986. Author of his autobiographical memoir, La Nuit.
1993-1994: NONE SELECTED
1992-1993: BARABARA HENDRICKS
African-American soprano trained at the Julliard School of Music in New York. Goodwill Ambassador with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). Founder of the Barbara Hendricks Foundation for Peace and Reconciliation.
1992-1993: ISABEL ALLENDE
Chilean author of numerous books, including Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses and Paula. 2014 Recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
1991-199q2: HODDING CARTER III
University Professor of Leadership and Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Chair of the University of North Carolina Press Development Council. Former President and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
1990-1991: NONE SELECTED
1989-1990: ROBERT M. SOLOW
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 1987. Professor of Economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
1989-1990: JOHN G. KEMENY
Contributor of the Manhattan Project. Developed one of the world's first time-sharing systems with Tom Kurtz. Former professor as well as chairman of the Board of Trustees at Dartmouth.
1988-1989: MARCEL OPHULS
Award-winning filmmaker known for his documentaries exploring 20th century atrocities. Particularly famous for his 1969 film "The Sorrow and the Pity" which explores Nazism in France.
1987-1988: E. L. DOCTOROW
Critically-acclaimed author of historical and political fiction essays and novels, including "Ragtime" and "Loon Lake". Former professor at Sarah Lawrence College, New York University and other institutions.
1986-1987: DR. LEWIS THOMAS
Former President of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and former dean of the New York University School of Medicine and Yale School of Medicine. Famed for his essays, and later books, deciphering biological phenomena for non-experts, including "The Lives of a Cell", 1974 National Book Award Winner.
1985-1986: SIR OLIVER WRIGHT
Former British Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Germany (1975-1981). Former British Ambassador to the United States (1982-1986).
1984-1985: NONE SELECTED
1983-1984: SANDRA DAY O'CONNOR
Retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States (1981-2006). First woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.
1982-1983: LANE KIRKLAND
President of the AFL-CIO from 1979 to 1995. Prominent leader of the American labor movement.
1981-1982: NONE SELECTED
1980-1981: MARIA DE LOURDES PINTASILGO
Portugal's first female Prime Minister (1979-1980) and the second woman to hold the position of Prime Minister in Europe. Former Portugal Ambassador to UNESCO (1975-1979).
1979-1980: ANDREW YOUNG
Former Executive Director of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Former Georgia Congressmen, the state's first African American congressmen since Reconstruction. Former Ambassador to the United Nations (1977-1979). Professor at Georgia State University's Andrew Young School of Policy Studies
1978-1979: SAUL BELLOW
Recipient of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1976. First American awarded the International Literary Prize for Herzog in 1965.
1977-1978: MARGARET MEAD
Renowned anthropologist and author of the best-selling book Coming of Age in Samoa, examining the interaction between developmental stages and cultural standards. Founder of the Institute for Intercultural Studies.
1976-1977: NONE SELECTED
1975-1976: JOHN SLOAN DICKEY '29
President of Dartmouth from 1945-1970. Famed for his emphasis on the importance of diversity and investment in the liberal arts education.