Three of MIT's thinkers--Noam Chomsky, Esther Duflo and Neil Gershenfeld--have been named among 100 "global intellectuals" by Prospect Magazine.
The three are cited in the web-exclusive portion of the British monthly magazine's web site for their work on foreign policy, poverty and quantum computing.
Chomsky, a professor of linguistics, is cited as being "a groundbreaking linguist and a prominent critic of U.S. foreign policy" as well as the winner of the magazine's 2005 global intellectuals poll.
Duflo, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics, was noted for her work on "health, poverty and credit issues in the developing world."
Gershenfeld, director of the Center for Bits and Atoms at MIT, "takes an interdisciplinary approach to quantum computing, nanotechnology and personal fabrication," the magazine's citation notes.
Readers will now vote on their choice for "top global public intellectuals"--for the first time since Chomsky won the title in 2005--until May 15 at http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/intellectuals/.
Prospect touts itself as a monthly that is "more readable than the Economist, more relevant than the Spectator, more romantic than the New Statesman," according to its web site.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on May 7, 2008 (download PDF).
