1. Awarded the Nobel prize for physiology and medicine in 1972. One of the world's foremost experts on the brain and consciousness, he is founder and director of the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, Calif., a “scientific monastery,” where he spoke with NPQ editor Nathan Gardels. Edelman's most recent book is Wider Than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness (Yale University Press, 2004).