Which MIT Alumni Were Nominated for 2013 TIME Person of the Year?
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According to the magazine, the Person of the Year is a person, group, idea, or object that, positively or negatively, has done the most to influence the events of 2013. TIME's editors ultimately determine the recipient but an online reader’s choice poll, which was announced on Dec. 6, selected Egyptian Army Chief Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who received more than 26 percent of the nearly 2 million online votes.
Are the nominated alumni deserving of the title? And are there other alumni you believe are worthy of consideration?
Charles Koch ’57, SM ’58, SM ’60 David Koch ’62, SM ’63
The brothers Koch are co-owners of Koch Industries, the second-largest privately held company in the United States, whose products include asphalt, chemicals, commodities trading, fertilizers, finance, natural gas, plastics, and petroleum. The Kochs garnered only .2 percent of the online voting.
In addition to Koch Industries, the brothers are well-known for their philanthropy and their financial commitments to funding political causes.
Benjamin Netanyahu ’75, SM ’76
Israel's incumbent prime minister, Netanyahu oversaw the formation of the thirty-third government of Israel, a coalition of political parties within the Knesset, Israel's national legislature.
According to TIME, Netanyahu—who also garnered .2 percent in the online poll—was an outspoken critic of Iran's nuclear ambitions and other countries' rapprochement with the Iranian regime.
In 2012, four MIT-connected candidates were nominated for Person of the Year: Netanyahu, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi PhD ’77, the Mars Rover, whose journey to Mars was orchestrated by more than 20 MIT alumni, and the Higgs boson. (President Barack Obama ultimately took top honors.)
A 2013 MIT selection as Person of the Year would join a list of at least five previous alumni, including:
- Ben Bernanke PhD ’79 (2009), Federal Reserve Chairman who oversaw the Reserve’s response to the global financial crisis. [Read Bernanke's 2006 MIT Commencement address.]
- Dr. David Ho (1996), 1978 graduate of the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, CEO and director of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center. [Read Ho's 1998 MIT Commencement address.]
- American Scientists (1960), which included Charles Stark Draper ’26, SM ’28, ScD ’38, William Shockley PhD ’36, Robert Woodward ’36, PhD ’37, and former professor and provost Charles Hard Townes.
Related: Which MIT alumni were named to the TIME 100 earlier this year?
Comments
owen franken
Tue, 12/10/2013 5:37am
Writing this while watching the Memorial for Nelson Mandela, it makes me thing that Mandela, seeing this choice, must be laughing right now.
http://thebea.st/18xc79V
http://mondoweiss.net/2013/12/help-netanyahu-mandela-memorial.html
So Bibi Netanyahu says Israel cannot afford to send him to the funeral, so he is not going. I guess he knows something about Apartheid. I guess they can afford building new settlements, though. More money for bulldozers. Maybe the Koch brothers could send him some money, or the Adelson guy in Las Vegas.
Frankly, these three embarrass me as an MIT Alum. And as a person of Jewish heritage.
To refer to the Koch brothers as “philanthropists” is rather a stretch. Buying elections for right wing nut cases and denying global warming with distortions and attack ads is “philanthropy”?
Let’s nominate Karl Rove, as well. and Rush Limbaugh. After all, Limbaugh was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 (maybe other years as well) by a right wing think tank (an oxymoron if ever I’ve heard one.)
Time Magazine can do better.
shannon maher
Mon, 12/09/2013 3:44pm
wow. Nothing to be proud of here, with these three regressive types.
owen franken
Sat, 12/07/2013 6:27am
Horrors!