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.
Held by Adam Riess
ADAM RIESS is an internationally renowned observational cosmologist working on the measurement of the expansion of the universe and a recipient of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics. His research is critically important for furthering our knowledge of the origin, composition, and ultimate destiny of our universe, and to understanding the fundamental physics of space and time.
Riess uses numerous astronomical phenomena, such as supernovae (exploding stars), Cepheids (pulsating stars) and stellar parallax, to map the universe and measure its expansion history. He is currently developing new tools for measuring the present expansion rate, or Hubble constant, to unprecedented precision. Riess uses NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to provide important independent probes of the nature of dark energy through techniques he helped develop for this purpose. His goal is to determine the nature of dark energy, how gravity behaves across the Universe, and how these may impact the fate of the Universe.
Riess joined the Space Telescope Science Institute in 1999 and Johns Hopkins University in 2006, and was named a Bloomberg Distinguished Professor in 2016.
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.