Computer engineering

Born in Karachi, Pakistan, Nanjiani moved to the U.S. for college. "I have a very conflicted relationship to where I'm from ..." he says. "It's still a struggle to negotiate some of it."

The "i" prefix began as an abbreviation for the word "Internet," but ended up being much more than that. "By the time i- was fleshed out, Apple had transformed itself from a culty computer-maker to a major religion," says linguist Geoff Nunberg.

Hillis is one of the world's leading computer scientists and is the designer of the world's fastest computer. He's also Vice President and Disney Fellow at Walt Disney Imagineering. His new book is "The Pattern on the Stone: the simple ideas that make computers work" (Basic Books)