Simon Schama is University Professor of Art History and History at Columbia University and a Contributing Editor of the Financial Times. He is the author of sixteen books and the writer-presenter of more than forty documentaries on art, history and literature for BBC2. His art criticism for The New Yorker won the National Magazine Award for criticism in 1996; his film on Bernini from The Power of Art won an Emmy in 2007 and his series on British history and The American Future: a History, Broadcast Critics Guild awards. He won the NCR non-fiction prize for Citizens, National Book Critics Circle award for Rough Crossings, the WH Smith Literary Award for Landscape and Memory. He writes on cooking and food for GQ; fashion for Harpers Bazaar and on everything else for the FT. He curated the Government Art Collection show Travelling Light at the Whitechapel Gallery in London and has collaborated with Anselm Kiefer, John Virtue and Cecile B. Evans on contemporary art exhibitions and installations. His latest project is The Story of the Jews, which was broadcast on television and published as a book in the UK in autumn 2013, and in the US in spring 2014.
Simon Schama2015Author and Historian
Dennis Ross2014American Ambassador to Middle East
Michael Pollan2013Author and Food Activist
Letty Cottin Pogrebin2011Author
Thomas Friedman2009Author & Journalist
Dr. Ruth Westheimer2008Sociologist and psychosexual therapist
Scott S. Cowen, Ph.D.2006President of Tulane University
Frédéric Brenner2004Photographer
Barry Scheck, Esq.2003Defense Attorney and Professor
Dr. Judah Folkman2002Medical researcher
Ruth Gruber2001Journalist and humanitarian
David Halberstam2000Journalist and Non-fiction Writer
Peter Yarrow1999Musician and Activist
Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield1998Ice Cream Entrepreneurs, Philanthropists and Activists
Felix G. Rohatyn1996Former U.S. Ambassador and Investment Banker
Senator Charles E. Schumer1995Democratic Politician
Marion Wiesel1993Translator and Humanitarian Activist
Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe1992Physician and Medical Activist
Adam Michnik1991Journalist and Anti-Communist Dissident
Jonathan Kozol1990Author and Education Activist
Isaac Stern1989Violinist and Philanthropist
Eugene M. Lang1988Businessman and Philanthropist
Mathilde Krim, Ph.D.1987Scientist and Medical Researcher