Adam Bly

Out of the lab, without completing a university education, he founded Seed – tag-lined "Science is Culture" – and served as its editor-in-chief.

"The best comparison for Seed," wrote a media critic at the time of the magazine's launch in 2001, "is the early years of Rolling Stone, when music was less a subject than a lens for viewing culture."

Under his leadership, the magazine earned critical acclaim for modernizing scientific publishing and for bridging long-standing divides between science and society – from art and design to politics and religion.

He was named vice chair of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Design Innovation and partner to the Executive Coordination Office for the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.

His achievements were highlighted by then-Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, "for showing people the scope and power of science not just as an object of study but as a key to understanding the world around us."