Columbia Encyclopedia

(Encyclopedia) Hänsch, Theodor Wolfgang, 1941–, German physicist, Ph.D. Heidelberg, 1969. He was a professor at Stanford from 1975 to 1986 and then became head of the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics, Garc...

(Encyclopedia) World Economic Forum (WEF), independent international organization that seeks to improve the state of the world by encouraging partnerships between the public and private sectors, est. 1971 by the Ger...

(Encyclopedia) Adolfo, 1923-2021, Cuban-American fashion designer, b. Havana, Cuba, as Adolfo Sardiña. Adolfo came to New York in the 1950s, originally working as a milliner (hat maker/designer). He ope...

(Encyclopedia) Alter, Harvey James, 1935–, American virologist, b. New York City, M.D. Univ. of Rochester, 1960. He has been a researcher at the National Institutes of Health since 1969. The 2020 Nobel Prize in Ph...

(Encyclopedia) Goode, John Paul go͝od [key], 1862–1932, American geographer and cartographer, b. Stewartville, Minn., grad. Univ. of Minnesota, 1889, Ph.D. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1901. He taught geography at the ...

(Encyclopedia) Bernanke, Ben Shalom bĕrnăngkˈē [key], 1953–, U.S. economist and government official, b. Augusta, Ga.; grad. Harvard (B.A., 1975), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D., 1979). He was a p...

(Encyclopedia) Anthropocene Epoch, an unofficial term used by scientists to describe a period of time—up to the present—in which humanity has impacted the planet on a global scale. The phrase was fir...

(Encyclopedia) International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), specialized agency of the United Nations, organized in 1947, with headquarters at Montreal. The objective of the ICAO, which has 190 member nations, i...

(Encyclopedia) John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, philanthropic institution founded 1978 by John D. MacArthur (1897–1978), owner of a prominent insurance company and other businesses, and his wife Cath...

(Encyclopedia) Witteveen, H. Johannes (Hendrikus Johannes Witteveen), 1921–2019, Dutch economist and political leader. After receiving his doctorate from the Netherlands School of Economics (now Erasmus Univ. Rott...