MICHAEL R. BLOOMBERG is the founder of Bloomberg LP, Philanthropist, UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Cities and Climate Change, World Health Organization Global Ambassador for Noncommunicable Diseases, and three-term mayor of New York City.
He is an entrepreneur and philanthropist who served as mayor of New York City from 2002-2013 after leading the company he started in 1981 for 20 years. Since leaving City Hall, he has resumed leadership of Bloomberg LP.
Bloomberg was elected mayor less than two months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Under his leadership, the city rebounded faster and stronger than expected on issues ranging from education to health to economic development.
A lifelong philanthropist, Bloomberg founded Bloomberg Philanthropies, which focuses on five main areas: public health, education, the environment, the arts, and government innovation. He also leads a number of bi-partisan coalitions on urgent issues, including climate change, illegal guns, immigration reform, and infrastructure investment.
Bloomberg graduated from Johns Hopkins University and Harvard Business School.
RACHEL GREEN received her BS in Chemistry at the University of Michigan in 1986. She performed her thesis work in biochemistry in 1993 in the laboratory of Jack Szostak at Harvard University where she focused on structural and functional analysis of catalytic RNAs and the implications of such molecules for the earliest evolution of life. As a postdoctoral fellow in UC Santa Cruz, she began her work on the ribosome with Harry Noller exploring the diverse functions of rRNA and tRNA in translation. In 1998, she began as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and was promoted to full professor in 2007. Since 2000, her work has been supported by Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI). Her laboratory focuses on diverse aspects of translation and its regulation in bacteria, yeast and higher eukaryotic systems – with a recent focus on defining the molecular mechanisms that specify the high fidelity of protein synthesis during translation.