2007 Winners
2007 TED Prize winners, from left: biologist E.O. Wilson, activist Bill Clinton, photojournalist James Nachtwey
Bill Clinton
Under President Clinton’s leadership, the United States enjoyed unprecedented peace and prosperity. After leaving the White House, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the mission to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence. To achieve this, the Clinton Foundation is focused on four critical areas: health security, with an emphasis on HIV/AIDS; economic empowerment; leadership development and citizen service; and racial, ethnic and religious reconciliation.
Bill Clinton’s Wish
I wish you to help create a better future for Rwanda by assisting my foundation, in partnership with the Rwandan Government, to build a sustainable, high quality rural health system for the whole country.
One Year Later
Where We Are Now
Following the development of the national framework by the Government of Rwanda, with the support of the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) and Partners In Health, the government asked CHAI to support them in developing individual scale-up plans for all 30 districts. In parallel to this nation-wide process, scale-up has already begun the district of Burera. This district was the last in Rwanda to have a hospital; today the district has constructed a new operating room, maternity ward, x-ray room, centre for dentistry, physiotherapy and mental health, administration building and staff housing, purchased three new ambulances, trained 400 community health workers, among other developments.
EO Wilson
One of the world’s most distinguished scientists, EO Wilson is a university research professor and honorary curator in entomology at Harvard University. His most recent work has focused on drawing public attention to the impact human activity has had on life on the planet. His research includes evolutionary biology, the biology of social insects, the classification of ants, sociobiology, biogeography, and ethical philosophy.
EO Wilson’s wish
I wish that we will work together to help create the key tool that we need to inspire preservation of Earth’s biodiversity: the Encyclopedia of Life.
One Year Later
Where We Are Now
Encyclopedia of Life has grown at an astounding rate since Edward O. Wilson’s TED Prize speech in 2007. Today, the site includes 40,000 dynamic species pages with verified scientific data, approximately 1 million place-holder pages, links to related biodiversity literature, distribution maps, images, and more. EOL works with over twenty international content partners and with countless individual scientists to safeguard the rich spectrum of life on the planet. Right now, users can upload images to the EOL group on Flickr. By the end 2008, the EOL team will begin using these images on species pages, and will debut tools for contributing, tagging, and commenting on EOL data.
James Nachtwey
James Nachtwey is one of the best-known and most highly regarded current photojournalists. In 1976 he started work as a newspaper photographer in New Mexico, and in 1980, he moved to New York to begin a career as a freelance magazine photographer. His first foreign assignment was to cover civil strife in Northern Ireland in 1981 during the IRA hunger strike. Since then, Nachtwey has devoted himself to documenting wars, conflicts and critical social issues.
James Nachtwey’s Wish
I’m working on a story that the world needs to know about. I wish for you to help me break it in a way that provides spectacular proof of the power of news photography in the digital age.
One Year Later
Where We Are Now
For 18 months, James Nachtwey went around the world to capture images of the scourge of extremely drug-resistant tuberculosis. On October 3, 2008, his wish became a reality with the launch of the website XDRTB.org, a series of global projections and LED screen showings, and a 7 page spread in TIME magazine. In response to James’ wish, both candidates for US president responded with support for working to stop the spread of TB. Media outlets around the world picked up the story and hundreds of thousands of people viewed the slideshow in the first two weeks after its release.