Which Alumni Were Named to the Time 100 in 2014?

Time magazine’s annual list of the world’s most influential people, the Time 100, recognizes the 100 people whom the magazine’s editors believe have most impacted the world in the past year.

MIT alumni tend to have a strong presence on the annual list—eight alums have been named to the list in the past two years. The magazine's 2014 selections include at least three alumni and one former researcher.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala MCP ’78, PhD ’81

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Image via Time

Okonjo-Iweala is in her second term as Nigeria’s minister of finance and Time called her the “guardian of Nigeria’s Public Funds.” She was lauded by the musician Bono, who wrote her Time 100 profile, for working to get Cold War–era debts canceled for the poorest, most heavily indebted countries.

“Humor and joy spill out of her, which can belie the fact that she’s got one of the toughest jobs on the planet — how to ensure that the tens of billions of dollars earned each year in oil receipts go into productive usage, like agriculture, infrastructure, health and education. Ngozi has made corruption her enemy and stability her goal.”

Charles Koch ’57, SM ’58, SM ’60 David Koch ’62, SM ’63

David and Charles Koch. Image via Time

The Koch brothers operate the United States’ second-largest private company, Koch Industries, which has subsidiaries in refinery, chemicals, and finance, and a reported $115 billion in revenue.

“By grit, persistence and hard work, they built a $100 billion-a-year business that employs tens of thousands. They give generously to medical research, the arts, education, think tanks and science. They care deeply about the values that make success in America possible — free markets, freedom, limited government and competition.”

View Time magazine’s full list, which includes geneticist David Sinclair, who was a postdoctoral researcher in the MIT Department of Biology in the 1990s.

Last year’s Time 100 list also included three MIT alumni: European Central Bank President Mario Draghi PhD ’77; immunologist Katherine Luzuriaga ’78, SM ’80; and Coursera cofounder Andrew Ng SM ’98.

In 2012, five members of the Time 100 had MIT connections: Draghi; educational pioneer Sal Khan ’98, MEng ’98; Professor Andrew Lo; Benjamin Netanyahu ’75, SM ’76; and Professor Donald Sadoway.

Are there other MIT alumni or researchers who deserved a spot on the 2014 list? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook and Twitter.