Walter Isaacson | |
---|---|
Born | Walter Seff Isaacson May 20, 1952 New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S. |
Education | Harvard University (AB) Pembroke College, Oxford (BA) |
Spouse | Cathy Wright (m. 1984) |
Children | 1 |
Awards | Benjamin Franklin Medal (2013) Nichols-Chancellor's Medal (2015) National Humanities Medal (2023) |
Chair of the Broadcasting Board of Governors | |
In office July 2, 2010 –January 27, 2012 | |
President | Barack Obama |
Preceded by | James K. Glassman |
Succeeded by | Jeff Shell |
Walter Seff Isaacson (born May 20,1952) is an American historian and journalist best known for having written biographies of important public figures,including Henry Kissinger,Benjamin Franklin,Albert Einstein,Steve Jobs,Jennifer Doudna and Elon Musk. As of 2024,Isaacson is a professor at Tulane University and,since 2018,an interviewer for the PBS and CNN news show Amanpour &Company. [3]
He has been the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute,a nonpartisan policy studies organization based in Washington,D.C.,the chair and CEO of CNN,and the editor of Time .
Isaacson attended Harvard University and Pembroke College,Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. He is the co-author with Evan Thomas of The Wise Men:Six Friends and the World They Made (1986) and the author of Pro and Con (1983), Kissinger:A Biography (1992), Benjamin Franklin:An American Life (2003), Einstein:His Life and Universe (2007),American Sketches (2009), Steve Jobs (2011), The Innovators:How a Group of Hackers,Geniuses,and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution (2014),Leonardo da Vinci (2017), The Code Breaker:Jennifer Doudna,Gene Editing,and the Future of the Human Race (2021) and Elon Musk (2023).
Isaacson is a professor at Tulane University and an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg Partners,a New York City-based financial services firm. [4] He was vice chair of the Louisiana Recovery Authority,which oversaw the rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina,chaired the government board that runs Voice of America,and was a member of the Defense Innovation Board.
Walter Seff Isaacson was born on May 20,1952, [5] [1] in New Orleans,Louisiana,the son of Betty "Betsy" Lee (née Seff) and Irwin Isaacson. [6] [7] [8] His father was an electrical and mechanical engineer,and his mother was a real estate broker. [6] He attended New Orleans' Isidore Newman School,where he was student body president. He also attended the Telluride Association Summer Program (TASP) at Deep Springs College.
Isaacson studied at Harvard University,where he majored in history and literature and graduated in 1974. At Harvard,Isaacson was the president of the Signet Society,a member of the Harvard Lampoon ,and a resident of Lowell House. He later attended Pembroke College,Oxford,as a Rhodes scholar,where he studied philosophy,politics,and economics (PPE) and graduated with first-class honours. [2] [5]
Isaacson began his career in journalism at The Sunday Times in London,followed by a position with the New Orleans Times-Picayune . He joined Time magazine in 1978,serving as the magazine's political correspondent,national editor,and editor of new media before becoming the magazine's 14th editor in 1996. [9] [10]
Isaacson became chairman and CEO of CNN in July 2001,replacing Tom Johnson,and only two months later,guided CNN through the events of 9/11. [11] [12] Shortly after his appointment at CNN,Isaacson attracted attention for seeking the views of Republican Party leaders on Capitol Hill regarding criticisms that CNN broadcast content that was unfair to Republicans or conservatives. He was quoted in Roll Call magazine as saying:"I was trying to reach out to a lot of Republicans who feel that CNN has not been as open to covering Republicans,and I wanted to hear their concerns." The CEO's conduct was criticized by the Fairness &Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) organization,which said that Isaacson's "pandering" behavior was endowing conservative politicians with power over CNN. [13] [14]
In January 2003,he announced that he would step down as president of CNN to become president of the Aspen Institute. [12] Jim Walton replaced Isaacson as president of CNN. [11]
Isaacson served as the president and CEO of the Aspen Institute from 2003 until 2018,when he announced that he would step down to become a professor of history at Tulane University and an advisory partner at the New York City financial services firm Perella Weinberg Partners. [4] In November 2017,the Aspen Institute named Dan Porterfield,the president of Franklin &Marshall College,as Isaacson's successor. [15]
In March 2017,Isaacson launched a podcast with Dell Technologies called Trailblazers,which focuses on technology's effects on business. [16] In 2018,Isaacson was named as a contributor for the Amanpour &Company airing on PBS and CNN that replaced The Charlie Rose Show. [17]
Isaacson is the author of multiple published books,including Kissinger:A Biography (1992), Benjamin Franklin:An American Life (2003), Einstein:His Life and Universe (2007) and American Sketches (2009). He additionally co-authored with Evan Thomas the work The Wise Men:Six Friends and the World They Made (1986). [2] [18]
On October 24,2011, Steve Jobs ,Isaacson's authorized biography of Apple Inc.'s Jobs,was published by Simon &Schuster,only a few weeks after Jobs's death. It became an international best-seller,breaking all records for sales of a biography. The book was based on over forty interviews with Jobs over a two-year period up until shortly before his death,and on conversations with friends,family members,and business rivals of the entrepreneur. [19] [20] [21] [22] [23]
In October 2014,Isaacson published The Innovators:How a Group of Inventors,Hackers,Geniuses,and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution ,which explores the history of the key technological innovations that were prominent in the digital revolution,most notably the parallel developments of the computer and the Internet. It became a New York Times bestseller. [24] Writing for the New York Times,Janet Maslin described the author as "a kindred spirit to the visionaries and enthusiasts" whom Isaacson wrote about. [25]
He is the editor of Profiles in Leadership:Historians on the Elusive Quality of Greatness (2010,W. W. Norton). [5] [26]
His eponymous biography of Leonardo da Vinci was published on October 17,2017,to positive reviews from critics. [27] [28] In August 2017,Paramount Pictures won a bidding war against Universal Pictures for the rights to adapt Isaacson's biography of da Vinci. The studio bought the rights under its deal with Leonardo DiCaprio's Appian Way Productions,which said that it planned to produce the film with DiCaprio as the star. [29] Screenwriter John Logan (The Aviator,Gladiator) has been tapped to pen the script. [30]
His book The Code Breaker:Jennifer Doudna,Gene Editing,and the Future of the Human Race was published in March 2021 by Simon &Schuster. It is a biography of Jennifer Doudna,the winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the CRISPR system of gene editing. [31] The book debuted at number one on The New York Times nonfiction best-seller list for the week ending March 13,2021. [32] Publishers Weekly called it a "gripping account of a great scientific advancement and of the dedicated scientists who realized it." [33]
Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk was published by Simon &Schuster on September 12,2023. It was shortlisted for the 2023 Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. [34]
In October 2005,the Governor of Louisiana,Kathleen Blanco,appointed Isaacson vice chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority,a board that oversaw spending on the recovery from Hurricane Katrina. In December 2007,he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the chairman of the U.S.-Palestinian Partnership,which seeks to create economic and educational opportunities in the Palestinian territories. [35] Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appointed him vice-chair of the Partners for a New Beginning,which encourages private-sector investments and partnerships in the Muslim world. [36]
He also served as the co-chair of the U.S.-Vietnamese Dialogue on Agent Orange,which in January 2008 announced completion of a project to contain the dioxin left behind by the U.S. at the Da Nang air base and plans to build health centers and a dioxin laboratory in the affected regions. [37]
In 2008,he was appointed to be a member of the Advisory Committee of the National Institutes of Health. In 2009,he was appointed by President Obama to be chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors,which runs Voice of America,Radio Free Europe,and the other international broadcasts of the U.S. government;he served until January 2012. [38]
In 2014,he was appointed by New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu to be the co-chair of the New Orleans Tricentennial Commission,which planned the city's 300th-anniversary commemoration in 2018. [39] In 2015,he was appointed to the board of My Brother's Keeper Alliance,which seeks to carry out President Obama's anti-poverty and youth opportunity initiatives. [40] In 2016,he was appointed by Landrieu and confirmed by the City Council to be a member of the New Orleans City Planning Commission. [41] He is a member of the U.S. Department of Defense Innovation Advisory Board. In 2018,he was appointed by New Orleans mayor-elect LaToya Cantrell to be co-chair of her transition team.
Isaacson is an advisory partner at Perella Weinberg,a financial services firm. He is the chairman emeritus of the board of Teach for America and is on the boards of United Airlines,Halliburton Labs,The New Orleans Advocate/Times-Picayune,New Schools New Orleans,Bloomberg Philanthropies,the Rockefeller Foundation,the Carnegie Institution for Science and the Society of American Historians,of which he served as president in 2012. [42]
In March 2019,Isaacson became the editor-at-large and senior adviser for Arcadia Publishing,where he was to promote books for the company as well as be involved in editing,new strategy development,and partnerships. [43]
Isaacson is an Associate of the History of Science Department and a member of the Lowell House Senior Common Room at Harvard University. He is also an honorary fellow of Pembroke College,Oxford. Walter Isaacson is a special professor of history at Tulane University. [44] [45] He teaches the course "The Digital Revolution" every spring and the course "Law and U.S. History" every fall. His courses often feature prominent guest speakers such as author Michael Lewis,Kickstarter founder Perry Chen,and billionaire businessman James Coulter. At Tulane,Isaacson co-chairs the annual New Orleans Book Festival. [46] [47]
In 2023,Isaacson received the National Humanities Medal from President Joe Biden. The White House citation of Isaacson's award emphasizes that his "work,words,and wisdom bridge divides between science and the humanities and between opposing philosophies,elevating discourse and our understanding of who we are as a Nation". [48]
Isaacson's book Steve Jobs,about the life of the entrepreneur,earned Isaacson the 2012 Gerald Loeb Award. [49]
In 2012,he was selected as one of the Time 100,the magazine's list of the most influential people in the world. [50] Isaacson is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and was awarded its 2013 Benjamin Franklin Medal. [51] [52] He is also a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences,the American Philosophical Society [53] and an Honorary Fellow of Pembroke College,Oxford.
In 2014,the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Isaacson for the Jefferson Lecture,the U.S. federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. The title of Isaacson's lecture was "The Intersection of the Humanities and the Sciences". [54]
He has honorary degrees from Tufts University,Cooper Union,William &Mary,Franklin University Switzerland,University of New Orleans,University of South Carolina,City University of New York (Hunter College),Pomona College,Lehigh University,Duke University,and Colorado Mountain College,where the Isaacson School of Media and Communications is named after him. [55] [56] He was the 2015 recipient of The Nichols-Chancellor's Medal at Vanderbilt University. [57]
William "Bill" D. Atkinson is an American computer engineer, computer programmer and photographer. Atkinson worked at Apple Computer from 1978 to 1990. Some of Atkinson's noteworthy contributions to the field of computing include Macintosh QuickDraw and Lisa LisaGraf (Atkinson independently discovered the midpoint circle algorithm for fast drawing of circles by using the sum of consecutive odd numbers), Marching ants, the double-click, Menu bar, the selection lasso, MacPaint (FatBits), HyperCard, Atkinson dithering, and the app PhotoCard.
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo.
The Vitruvian Man is a drawing by the Italian Renaissance artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1490. Inspired by the writings of the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius, the drawing depicts a nude man in two superimposed positions with his arms and legs apart and inscribed in both a circle and square. It was described by the art historian Carmen C. Bambach as "justly ranked among the all-time iconic images of Western civilization". Although not the only known drawing of a man inspired by the writings of Vitruvius, the work is a unique synthesis of artistic and scientific ideals and often considered an archetypal representation of the High Renaissance.
The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. The institute is headquartered in Washington, D.C. It also has campuses in Aspen, Colorado, its original home.
The Lady with an Ermine is a portrait painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci. Dated to c. 1489–1491, the work is painted in oils on a panel of walnut wood. Its subject is Cecilia Gallerani, a mistress of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan; Leonardo was painter to the Sforza court in Milan at the time of its execution. It is the second of only four surviving portraits of women painted by Leonardo, the others being Ginevra de' Benci, La Belle Ferronnière and the Mona Lisa.
The Portrait of a Musician is an unfinished painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1483–1487. Produced while Leonardo was in Milan, the work is painted in oils, and perhaps tempera, on a small panel of walnut wood. It is his only known male portrait painting, and the identity of its sitter has been closely debated among scholars.
Andrea del Verrocchio's bronze statue of David was most likely made between 1473 and 1475. It was commissioned by the Medici family. It is sometimes claimed that Verrocchio modeled the statue after his pupil Leonardo da Vinci.
The Isleworth Mona Lisa is an early 16th-century oil on canvas painting depicting the same subject as Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa, though with the subject depicted as being a younger age. The painting is thought to have been brought from Italy to England in the 1780s, and came into public view in 1913 when the English connoisseur Hugh Blaker acquired it from a manor house in Somerset, where it was thought to have been hanging for over a century. The painting would eventually adopt its unofficial name of Isleworth Mona Lisa from Blaker's studio being in Isleworth, West London. Since the 1910s, experts in various fields, as well as the collectors who have acquired ownership of the painting, have asserted that the major elements of the painting are the work of Leonardo himself, as an earlier version of the Mona Lisa.
Elsa Einstein was the second wife and cousin of Albert Einstein. Their mothers were sisters, thus making them maternal first cousins. The couple were also paternal second cousins. Born an Einstein, Elsa gave up the name when she took the surname of her first husband, Max Löwenthal; she and her daughters reverted to her maiden name after Elsa and Löwenthal's 1908 divorce.
Michael A. Marletta is an American biochemist. He was born in Rochester, New York, the son of Italian immigrants. He graduated from the State University of New York at Fredonia in 1973 with an A.B. degree in biology and chemistry, and from the University of California, San Francisco in 1978 with a Ph.D. degree in pharmaceutical chemistry, where he studied with George Kenyon. He was a postdoctoral fellow with Christopher T. Walsh at MIT from 1978-1980 and continued as a faculty member at MIT from 1980-1987 whereupon he joined the faculty of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He was John G. Searle Professor of Medicinal Chemistry in the college of pharmacy and professor of biological chemistry at the University of Michigan. In 2001, he moved to the University of California, Berkeley to assume roles as Aldo DeBenedictis Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and professor of biochemistry and molecular biology, and served as the chair of the department of chemistry from 2005 until 2010. He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator. From January 2012 to August 2014, Marletta was president and CEO of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California, succeeding Richard Lerner.
Steve Jobs is the authorized self-titled biography of American business magnate and Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. The book was written at the request of Jobs by Walter Isaacson, a former executive at CNN and Time who had previously written best-selling biographies of Benjamin Franklin and Albert Einstein.
Salvator Mundi is a painting attributed in whole or in part to the Italian High Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci, dated to c. 1499–1510. Long thought to be a copy of a lost original veiled with overpainting, it was rediscovered, restored, and included in an exhibition of Leonardo's work at the National Gallery, London, in 2011–2012. Christie's, who sold the work in 2017, stated that most leading scholars consider it an original work by Leonardo, but this attribution has been disputed by other leading specialists, some of whom propose that he only contributed certain elements; and others who believe that the extensive restoration prevents a definitive attribution.
Jennifer Anne Doudna is an American biochemist who has pioneered work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics. Doudna was one of the first women to share a Nobel in the sciences. She received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, with Emmanuelle Charpentier, "for the development of a method for genome editing." She is the Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Chair Professor in the department of chemistry and the department of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. She has been an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1997.
Einstein: His Life and Universe is a non-fiction book authored by American historian and journalist Walter Isaacson. The biographical analysis of Albert Einstein's life and legacy was published by Simon & Schuster in 2007, and it has received a generally positive critical reception from multiple fronts, praise appearing from an official Amazon.com review as well as in publications such as The Guardian and Physics Today.
The Franklin Project was a policy program of the Aspen Institute from October 2012 to December 2015, that focused on advancing national service in the United States. Walter Isaacson called the project the "biggest idea" to come out of the Aspen Ideas Festival during his tenure as CEO of the Aspen Institute. In January 2016, the project merged with ServiceNation and the Service Year Exchange project of the National Conference on Citizenship to form Service Year Alliance.
Ken Segall is an author and advertising creative director. Specializing in technology marketing, Segall was Steve Jobs' agency creative director for 12 years spanning NeXT and Apple, and also served as worldwide creative director at agencies for Dell, Intel and IBM.
The Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci drew his design for an "aerial screw" in the late 1480s, while he was employed as a military engineer by Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan from 1494 to 1499. The original drawing is part of a manuscript dated to 1487 to 1490 and appears on folio 83-verso of Paris Manuscript B, part of the papers removed from the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in 1795 by Napoleon and still held by the Institut de France in Paris.
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race is a non-fiction book authored by American historian and journalist Walter Isaacson. Published in March 2021 by Simon & Schuster, it is a biography of Jennifer Doudna, the winner of the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her work on the CRISPR system of gene editing.
Mammoth Biosciences is a biotechnology company based in Brisbane, California developing diagnostic tests using CRISPR-Cas12a and CRISPR-based therapies using its proprietary ultra-small CRISPR systems. Several CRISPR-Cas systems identified through the company's metagenomics-based protein discovery platform, including members of the Casφ and Cas14 families of CRISPR-associated enzymes, have demonstrated potential for therapeutic genome editing in in vivo settings.
Elon Musk is an authorized biography of American business magnate and SpaceX/Tesla CEO Elon Musk. The book was written by Walter Isaacson, a former executive at CNN, TIME and the Aspen Institute who had previously written best-selling biographies of Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs and Leonardo da Vinci. The book was published on September 12, 2023, by Simon & Schuster.
Paramount has set John Logan to adapt the Walter Isaacson book Leonardo da Vinci as a star vehicle for Leonardo DiCaprio to play the painter/scientist. DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson [Jennifer Davisson Killoran] are producing through their Appian Way banner.
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright will serve as the Chair of PNB. Walter Isaacson (President of The Aspen Institute) and Muhtar Kent (Chairman and CEO of The Coca-Cola Company) will serve as Vice-Chairs.
$300 million ($352 million in 2019) for Agent Orange fund
Board and Leadership Team: Walter Isaacson, CEO, Aspen Institute
Executive Board, 2011-2012 [...] Officers: Walter Isaacson, President
Business Books Winner: Walter Isaacson for 'Steve Jobs' published by Simon & Schuster
[W]hen I first started writing about Benjamin Franklin, I thought of him as a writer, a humanities type, somebody interested in governance. I did realize that he was probably the most important experimental scientist of his time. Both with the electricity experiment and so many of his other inventions. And I realize that a Benjamin Franklin or a Thomas Jefferson would have thought people philistines if they didn't appreciate the beauty of science. And likewise, Albert Einstein, a great scientist would have thought people philistines if they were scientists and didn't appreciate the beauty of Goethe or Mozart, or all of the literature or music that he loved.