To help our group get started, we prepared a list of approximately 250 Princeton graduates who have been recognized for their professional achievements. The fun of the exercise, we thought, was in comparing people across disciplines and generations, then seeing where the chips fell. We asked our panelists to select their choices without regard to balance of any sort - not to seek, for example, a certain number of scientists or writers or minorities or graduate alumni or alumni from a particular century. The object was not to select those who had the most influence on Princeton (see here for one writer’s views on that), but to explore alumni influence on the wider world. We set only a few ground rules: Virtually everyone who attended Princeton as an undergraduate or graduate student was eligible. Young Professor of Astronomy on the Class of 1897 Foundation and chairman of the Department of Astrophysical Sciences Emily Thompson *92, professor of history Sean Wilentz, the Sidney and Ruth Lapidus Professor in the American Revolutionary Era and Michael Wood, the Charles Barnwell Straut Class of 1923 Professor of English and Comparative Literature. Marks ’19 Professor of Chemical Engineering and dean of the Graduate School David Spergel ’82, the Charles A. Tod Professor of Religion and African American Studies Todd Purdum ’82, national editor at Vanity Fair magazine William Russel, the Arthur W. Members of the panel (find more information about them here) were Elizabeth Bogan, senior lecturer in economics Eddie S. We tried to make sure that our panelists represented a range of interests and specialties so that all areas in which people might be influential were considered. The list you see in this issue represents their conclusions. We assembled a panel of eight knowledgeable observers and asked them to pick and rank the 25 most influential Princetonians of all time. But where more circumspect souls might have feared to tread, PAW has rushed in. So it might seem daring, daunting, fascinating, foolish - pick your adjective - to try to single out the 25 who have been the most influential. They have become heads of state and congressional leaders made careers as doctors, lawyers, and business executives forged the nation and pushed back the veil of science and discovery won prizes, honors, and awards. Over the last 261 years, these and approximately 120,000 other men and women have marched out into the world as graduates of the university now known as Princeton.
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