One source of answers might be the Future of Life Award, which is “given to individuals who, without having received much recognition at the time, have helped make today dramatically better than it may otherwise have been”. It has so far been awarded to:
2021: Joseph Farman , Susan Solomon and Stephen Andersen for helping save our ozone layer
2020: Viktor Zhdanov (your answer) and William Foege for critical contributions to the eradication of a virus that killed 30% of those it infected: Smallpox
2019: Matthew Meselson for being a driving force behind the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, which averted an arms race in bioweapons
2018: Stanislav Petrov for helping to prevent an all-out US-Russian nuclear war with his decision to ignore algorithms and instead follow his gut instinct
2017: Vasili Arkhipov for single-handedly preventing nuclear war during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis through vetoing a submarine launch
One source of answers might be the Future of Life Award, which is “given to individuals who, without having received much recognition at the time, have helped make today dramatically better than it may otherwise have been”. It has so far been awarded to:
2021: Joseph Farman , Susan Solomon and Stephen Andersen for helping save our ozone layer
2020: Viktor Zhdanov (your answer) and William Foege for critical contributions to the eradication of a virus that killed 30% of those it infected: Smallpox
2019: Matthew Meselson for being a driving force behind the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention, which averted an arms race in bioweapons
2018: Stanislav Petrov for helping to prevent an all-out US-Russian nuclear war with his decision to ignore algorithms and instead follow his gut instinct
2017: Vasili Arkhipov for single-handedly preventing nuclear war during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis through vetoing a submarine launch