11. Aaron Koblin, Creative director, at Google Creative Lab selected Sid Meier, Game designer

Sid is the creator of ‘Civilization’. He has deconstructed the forces behind historical events and used computer simulation to recreate iterations of those rules and systems in an immersive and engaging gaming experience.

12. Geoffrey West, Theoretical physicist selected David Krakauer

David is a true polymath, full of ideas and creativity. He comes out of evolutionary biology at Oxford and was at the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, for quite a few years before becoming a colleague of Geoffrey at Santa Fe Institute. David has written papers with fellow biologists Martin Nowak and Mark Pagel and was recently recruited to run the new Winsconsin Institute for Discoverybiosciences.

13. John Brockman, President the Edge Foundation selected Jennifer Jacquet, Postdoctoral researcher

Jennifer is intellectually fearless, deeply serious about science, personally lively and always curious. Her interests are environmental sustainability (particularly fish), the evolution and function of guilt, honor and shame, and the role of IT in shaping environmental action, all of which fall under a broad interest in the tragedy of the commons.

14. Carlo Ratti, Director, SENSEable City Laboratory, MIT selected Salman Khan, Founder, Khan Academy

Higher education immediately needs to be reinvented while the world is trying to cope with an unprecedented demand from youth in emerging countries. “It's vital that all of us --researchers, teachers, academics look at how new technology can help with this."

15. Esther Dyson, Investor and entrepreneur selected Nathan Eagle, CEO, txteagle

Nathan Eagle is not just smart, he applies his intelligence to the real world, with both vision (mobile phones as capital equipment enabling millions of people around the world to become productive), and a business model (get them to collect data and market research for large companies). His company, Jana, employs thousands and ultimately, it employs millions of people in emerging markets as market researchers.