<p>For me, they must have wit and a sense of humor and are doing interesting ( to me, at least) things - this automatically excludes most politicians and CEO types.</p>
<p>Robert Ballard - Oceanographer and deep sea explorer, should be famous as the guy who discovered the steam vents at the bottom of the ocean floor. He is a highly entertaining guy.</p>
<p>Kobie Boykins - JPL engineer working on Mars Rover robots, former D1 hockey player, and a fellow RPI grad.</p>
<p>Helen Thayer - she lives pretty close to me, a naturalist and endurance athlete. She walked across the Gobi and Sahara deserts, kayaked the Amazon, lived with Arctic wolves, and summitted some of the world’s tallest peaks. </p>
<p>Leymah Gbowee - OK, so one political figure allowed.</p>
<p>Joseph Boudreau - Pitt physics professor and one of the unheralded scientists on the hunt for the Higgs boson particle, along with other supercollider experiments. He is astoundingly smart and very funny.</p>
<p>Now that I look at my list, maybe the women will be bored at my nerd convention.</p>
<p>silicon,
You brought back fond memories. Adding on to your list, I want some people in my profession. I also want those whose kids seem so similiar to mine. Then, some “oldies” whose posts I always like, and others who helped my son maneuver thru snowstorms. Some people are full of wisdom and others just warm and fun.</p>
<p>Cool thread. For me, I would also be interested in meeting Warren Buffet and the cast of Shark Tank to tell me where I went wrong and to help me make it right! :)</p>
<p>I would invite my “birthday buddies” Drew Barrymore and Marnie Nixon (she was the “voice” of Natalie Wood in West Side Story and Audrey Hepburn in My Fair Lady). Also “Isaiah” - the person who wrote the book of Isaiah. Coach Jimmy Valvano and actor Eddie Redmayne.</p>