Apr 24, 2014 09:54 PM EDT By Staff Reporter, UniversityHerald Reporter

From a quick survey, I couldn't find any people directly related to college among Time's annual "Top 100 Most Influential People in the World" list (Time seems to own the category of top 100 lists, by the way). Eventually, I'd pull a few names, including professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School David Sinclair for his anti-aging research (always a good way to make it on a Time list).  Texas Tech climatologist Katharine Hayhoe also met the publication's qualificatons for a very relevant topic, climate change. Separating her from the rest was the way she combined her faith and scientific background in the book, "A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions."

A closer scan revealed not another college professor in the top 100 (though correct me if I'm wrong), but one describing a scientist in the top 100. Instead of using their own reporters for the quick blurb below a chosen person's name and picture, Time used known members of the same field or somehow linked to the top 100's cause (sometimes that meant a famous fan; the actor Don Cheadle wrote for Hayhoe). For the best example, Annika Sorenstam did the write up of fellow LPGA golfer Lydia Ko.

Brian Greene, mathematics professor at Columbia University and author of several books, summarized the accomplishments of John Kovac. Kovac made Time's list by providing further evidence of the inflationary theory, which seeks to explain the universe's origins.

"If the results are confirmed, they will join a handful of breakthroughs over the past century that have profoundly shaped our understanding of how the universe began," Green wrote.

The most attention-driving member of the top 100 list was Beyonce. The most obvious was probably Barack Obama. The most athletic was Richard Sherman (Jason Collins also made it). The most controversial was Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. The most personally fulfilling was Matt McConaughey.

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