Andrew Welleford

Visionary agricultural scientist. His doctoral research correlating WWI draft rates to regional soil types led to the development of sophisticated metrics for soil fertility and its effect on crop, livestock, and human health.

First neurologist-astronaut. I would not mind having neurologist-astronaut as a job title.

Photo credit: NASA

Chef, food writer, and travel television personality. Idol of every "traveler, not tourist" archetype.

Photo credit: Cheryl/miss bake-a-lot.

Pathologist and scientist. His life's work offers the most comprehensive and compelling picture of the pathologic underpinnings of neurodegenerative disease.

Photo credit: Memim.com

aka Praxxus55712. YouTube gardener and modern Mr. Rogers.

Photo credit: Praxxus55712

Neuroscientist and Nobel Laureate. Co-discoverer (with Richard Axel) of the remarkable genetics of olfactory receptors.

Photo credit: Royal Society

History and politics podcaster with a true skill in storytelling. One of the few humans I can listen to for three uninterrupted hours.

Photo credit: dancarlin.com

Husband and wife biochemists, Nobel Laureates, and mountain climbers (relationship goals!). Pioneers in American biochemistry and founders of a phenominally successful lab in Washington University St. Louis.

Photo credit: Smithsonian Institution

aka OneYardRevolution. YouTube gardener and civilian scientist.

Photo credit: One Yard Revolution

Scientists and illustrator. He has has the skill to visually and accurately depict the molecular clockwork of life.

Photo credit: https://www.scripps.edu/research/faculty/goodsell

One of the greatest chefs alive today. He taught me how to perfectly roast a chicken, which was one of the most important skills I developed as a home cook.

Photo credit: https://www.thomaskeller.com/tk/press-kits

Organic farmer and founder of the Bionutrient Food Organization. Synthesizer of many scientific, philisophical, and agricultural schools of thought. Through outreach and public speaking he is spreading tenants of biological farming around the world.

Author and futurist. His audacious predictions about the course of human technological progress have set the upper bounds for my expectations of transhumanism.

Photo credit: Michael Lutch

Writer and professional food nerd. His column The Food Lab is the best source of home-cook science on the internet.

Photo credit: Vicky Wasik, http://www.kenjilopezalt.com/bio/

Author. This man created one of the richest, most compelling, and most approachable fictional universes ever in his "A Song of Ice and Fire" series.

Photo credit: Gage Skidmore

aka Chef John

YouTube chef and educator. Chef John's videos brought me from competent recipe-follower to adventurous home cook.

Photo credit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZFxWaOvsCI

Chef and restaurateur . She's responsible for many of my favorite restaurants around Kentucky and supports local food for all the right reasons.

Photo credit: https://twitter.com/ChefOuita

aka Dr. Najeeb

Physician and medical educator. The best educational illustrator I know of.

Photo credit: https://www.drnajeeblectures.com/

Physician and medial illustrator. His anatomy atlas is the best combination of accuracy and aesthetic beauty out there.

Photo credit: Frank Netter

Food writer and activist. He is pioneering a compelling school of thought about food and how we should eat.

Photo credit: Ken Light, http://michaelpollan.com/press-kit/

Author and illustrator, famous not only for her Peter Rabbit children's books but also for her mycology illustrations. Particularly inspiring as a self-motivated learner.

Photo credit: Charles G.Y. King

Scientist and communicator. He inspired me early in my training to pursue science as a field, and is one of my role models for communicating science to a general audience.

Photo credit: NASA

Pathologist and educator. His medical review course Pathoma is responsible for myself and countless other medical students passing their board exams.

Photo credit: http://www.uchospitals.edu/physicians/husain-sattar.html

Organic chemist and pharmacologist. Developed many of the synthetic methods used to generate derivatives of 5-HT2A agonists and systematically cataloged their subjective psychopharmacological effects.

Photo credit: https://twitter.com/drashulgin

Mycologist and mushroom guru. Operates one of the largest consumer-facing fungi businesses and also finds time to pioneer the field of mycoremediation.

Photo credit: Dusty Yao-Stamets