Paul Ginsparg Paul Ginsparg arrived a few minutes late to our session at Cornell, still wearing his bike helmet and running shoes. He had pedaled across campus through the cold November air. His office looked like a storm had passed through and decided to stay. Boxes everywhere. Old computers…

Paul Ginsparg changed how science is shared. In 1991, in a small Cornell office filled with chalk dust and curiosity, he built ArXiv, the first open-access preprint server. His idea rewired the global flow of knowledge. Physics first, then the world. #NewHeroes @nationalacademies.org

"Knowing without seeing is at the heart of chemistry." New Heroes portrait of @nobelprize.bsky.social laureate & Cornell Professor Roald Hoffmann for the @nationalacademies.org & @nasonline.org.

Portrait of mathematician Steven Strogatz at Cornell. Strogatz studies the mathematics of connection, from the rhythm of fireflies to the beating of the heart. @stevenstrogatz.com More explorers.com/steven-strogatz

“The speed limit on light, that might sound frustrating, is what allows us this privileged view of most of the universe’s past, helping us sketch the evolution of the whole cosmos.” ― Lisa Kaltenegger. Portrait of Cornell's Lisa Kaltenegger for the @nationalacademies.org. #NewHeroes

Kavita Bala Kavita Bala, Cornell’s provost, brings both warmth and precision to every conversation. When you meet her, the first thing you notice is her smile, open and deeply kind. Beneath that warmth is a strong sense of purpose. She stepped into the provost role at a time of great change, when…

Geoff Coates Geoff Coates is one of the world’s leading polymer chemists, known for finding purpose in the smallest bonds. On a rainy afternoon in Olin Hall at Cornell, we talked about chemistry, entrepreneurship, and the early inspiration he drew from his father, who was also a chemist. In the…

Paul Ginsparg Paul Ginsparg’s office in Cornell’s Physical Sciences Building feels like an extension of his mind. Books, papers, and boxes rise in uneven stacks, every surface covered with the traces of long-running projects and passing curiosities. The blackboards behind him are dense with…

New heroes portrait of Lisa Kaltenegger for the @nationalacademies.org. Kaltenegger is among the world’s leading experts on exoplanets, those distant worlds orbiting other stars. explorers.com/lisa-kaltene...

Roald Hoffman Roald Hoffmann carries the calm focus of someone who has spent a lifetime listening to the quiet language of matter. His office in Baker Laboratory at Cornell feels like a reflection of his mind, filled with carvings, masks, paintings, poems, books, and models of molecules. Every…

I photographed @nobelprize.bsky.social laureate Roald Hoffmann at Cornell’s Baker Lab on a windy fall afternoon. We spoke about chemistry, art, and the difference between intelligence and wisdom. Cornell University (2025). #RoaldHoffmann #Cornell #Chemistry #NobelPrize #NewHeroes

Mariana Wolfner Mariana Wolfner has spent her life studying a creature so small it could rest on the tip of her finger. In her hands, the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster becomes something extraordinary, a key to understanding how life is shaped, sustained, and passed on. On a windy fall…

Portrait of Ann Druyan for the @nationalacademies.org. I photographed Ann Druyan on a crisp autumn day in Ithaca, at the home she once shared with Carl Sagan. We spoke about the Voyager Golden Record, the message she and Carl sent into the stars. @carlsagandotcom.bsky.social

Ann Druyan Ann Druyan has spent her life expanding the boundaries of wonder. When I met her on a bright, wind-stirred afternoon in Ithaca, the trees along the slope behind her home flared red and gold, and the air carried that particular autumn light that makes everything feel newly seen. It was…

Portrait of photographer Sam Abell

Portrait of Astronaut Vic Glover

Robert Farese Bob Farese Jr. has always lived between identities. Trained as both a physician and a scientist, he’s someone who listens as intently as he investigates. You can sense it when he speaks;quiet, deliberate, with a kind of inward momentum that doesn’t announce itself but builds as he…

The imposition of business culture in areas they have no experience or expertise in is seductive from a financial perspective, but the risk is that it kills the golden goose of academia by making everything transactional. Academics works because people in general, give more than they receive.

[email protected] is one of neuroscience's most remarkable young investigators. His assembloids, organized clusters of brain cells that form recognizable regions and connections, have solved an old problem. More: explorers.com/sergiu-p-pas...

Davis Masten Davis Masten has spent his life navigating the spaces where science, design, and imagination meet. As the longtime CEO and co-chair of Cheskin, he helped shape how organizations think about people and innovation. The firm was among the first to merge anthropology, psychology, and…

Om Malik, the impossible cool. @om.co

Dr. Rocco Mancinelli is a microbiologist researching how life adapts to extreme environments and what those adaptations reveal about life beyond it. He studies microorganisms that thrive in conditions once thought inhospitable: high salt, intense radiation, and cold. explorers.com/rocco-mancin...

New Heroes portrait of NASA's Lynn Rothschild. Dr Rothschild has spent her career asking one of the most profound questions in science: what is life, and where else might it exist? explorers.com/lynn-rothsch...

Lynn Rothschild Dr. Lynn Rothschild has spent her career asking one of the most profound questions in science: what is life, and where else might it exist? As an astrobiologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, she studies the limits of life on Earth to better understand its potential beyond our…

Rocco Mancinelli Dr. Rocco Mancinelli is a microbiologist at NASA’s Ames Research Center whose research explores how life adapts to extreme environments on Earth and what those adaptations reveal about life beyond it. He studies microorganisms that thrive in conditions once thought inhospitable:…

The city drifts beyond his stillness. Myanmar (2013). #Leica #M9. #Photography

Late afternoon in Kalaw, Myanmar. One of those special moments when the world arranges itself to be remembered. #Leica M9 #Photography

"Secretary Kennedy is entitled to his views. But he is not entitled to put people’s health at risk. He has rejected science, misled the public and compromised the health of Americans. The nation deserves a health and human services secretary who is committed to scientific integrity…”

Omar Yaghi is “driven by a conviction that chemistry is not only about understanding the natural world but about reshaping it for the better…. His work does not sit in textbooks or laboratories alone, it is out in the world, altering the very fabric of our future.”🧪

Congratulations to @nationalacademies.org member & @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social Professor Omar Yaghi on winning with 2025 @nobelprize.bsky.social in Chemistry! explorers.com/omar-yaghi/ @berkeleylab.lbl.gov

Danger Zone. #Photography

Beautiful Copenhagen. #Photography

Pam Melroy, a retired Air Force colonel and astronaut, is one of only two women ever to command a space shuttle. She left NASA in 2009 after three missions and more than 900 hours in orbit, later taking on leadership roles in aerospace and government. @astropam.bsky.social

Copenhagen

Good morning, Copenhagen

Starry Night. Castro, San Francisco (2025) Fujifilm GFX100RF

Blaise Agüera y Arcas Blaise Agüera y Arcas is a scientist, engineer, and thinker who has consistently explored the boundaries of intelligence, both human and artificial. His career has been shaped by an insatiable curiosity about how minds work, how they can be extended by machines, and what…

Ira Flatow Ira Flatow has spent more than sixty years turning science into story. His voice, instantly recognizable to generations of listeners, has carried discoveries from the lab and field into kitchens, cars, and classrooms. He has always been more than a broadcaster. He is a translator of…

Ada Limón Ada Limón was born in 1976 in Sonoma, California, into a family that valued both art and language. With Mexican American and American roots, she grew up among vineyards, horses, and eucalyptus, learning early that words could hold both clarity and mystery. That early sense of language’s…

Explorers.com reveals the faces of discovery. Scientists, engineers, and innovators whose work is shaping what it means to be human. As Artist in Residence at the @nationalacademies.org I am creating these portraits to remind us that science is a human story. www.Explorers.com

Sometimes, the dream is real. #Svalbard #Photography

Gemini rises, born from silence into code, the unknown unfolds. Demis Hassabis is the co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence research labs.

Sadie loves to watch tv.

Avi Loeb is a Harvard astrophysicist who has spent his career pushing at the edges of the known universe—from black holes and the first stars to the possibility of life beyond Earth.

Eva Nogales Dr. Eva Nogales is a structural biologist whose pioneering work in cryo-electron microscopy has revealed the intricate architecture of cellular machinery. Her research has provided groundbreaking insights into how macromolecules function, shaping our understanding of processes such as…

"While science can be a challenge…all that pales in comparison to the thrill of the questions to be asked, of seeing them answered one day” New Heroes portrait of @ucberkeleyofficial.bsky.social Professor Eva Nogales. @royalsociety.org @nationalacademies.org @nogaleslab.bsky.social

Lucy Shapiro wins Lasker Lifetime Achievement. Portrait for the @nationalacademies.org in the NYT. www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/h...

I think a lot about what Carl Sagan said in one of his final interviews.

Twin Baslers rest on the endless white of Union Glacier. Engines silent, skis planted deep in the ice, they wait like relics of another age. #Photography