Knowledge for the World Award 2009*

2009 Recipients

Bharati Chaturvedi, SAIS '07 (MIPP)
Bharati Chaturvedi has devoted her professional career to improving conditions for the poor through creative collaborative efforts, including the founding of an environmental research and action group that is becoming widely known in India and in the global international development community. She founded Chintan, now a 23 person organization, out of an urgent need to create a cross-cutting environmental, health and governance interface — particularly with local people to explore and to build informed understanding about the plight of the urban poor. Bharati is the founder and director of Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group, an advocacy group that focuses on issues of urban poverty, consumption, and sustainable development for people working and living in India's informal sector.  Through diverse initiatives, and in partnership with the urban poor, Chintan pioneers ways to improve living conditions, from offering local sanitation improvement strategies to advocating against toxic materials being imported into India's recycling dumps where local people work. In an effort to build a wider community of support for the informal sector, to raise awareness and to influence policy making, Bharati writes regularly for leading newspapers and speaks on issues around urban environment, waste and sustainable development.  She has a Master's degree in history from Delhi University, and a Master's in International Public Policy from the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. In addition, she co-produced a documentary film "60 Kilos" which examines the operations of waste-pickers in New Delhi and elaborates on the process of waste recycling in the informal sector.  Prior to Chintan, Bharati was one of the founders of Srishti, an environmental group that was formed by students in Delhi University to address a range of environmental concerns.  Living and working in Delhi, she was able to research and address issues of the urban environment, the informal sector, their environmental service delivery, the health impact of toxins, and environmental governance at a time when these issues were not on the agenda. Top

Byeong Woo Lee, Peab '98 (GPD), '00 (GPD)
Byeong Woo Lee is a guitarist, composer, writer, arranger and producer. His music can be heard in more than a dozen films and many commercials, and he is starting to score music for video games as well. Byeong Woo created the soundtrack for the horror film "The Host", a favorite at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, and earned the Korean equivalent of an Academy Award for the score. He also won the Golden Goblet Award at the Shanghai International Film Festival for "Untold Scandal" in 2003 and music awards from local film festivals including the Korea Film Festival for "My Beautiful Girl, Mari" in 2002 and the Blue Dragon Awards as music director for "The King and the Clown". He recently finished working on the movie "TOKYO!" directed by Korean director Bong Joon-ho, and French directors Leos Carax and Michel Gondry. After gaining success as a pop musician in his early 20s, Byeong Woo decided he needed more formal training and he went to Europe to study at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna. In 1998, he traveled to the United States to continue his studies at Peabody. It was in Baltimore, that he found his musical voice and met his mentor, guitar professor Julian Grey. In 1998, Byeong Woo became the first classical guitarist to earn the 1st Place Award in the Yale Gordon Competition at Peabody.While he was abroad studying, Byeong Woo agreed to have his guitar music appear in many Korean short films. In addition to being one of the most sought after film soundtrack producers in Korea, he is currently making the background music for Dragonika, an online game published by NCSoft (CEO: Kim, Jin-Taek) and developed by Barunson Interactive (CEO: Lee, Seung-Gu and Lee, Yeon-Ju). Top

Zeid Ra'ad, A&S '87
Prince Zeid Ra'ad has led a distinguished career as a diplomat, peacekeeper, and international mediator.  He is Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the United States of America and non-resident Ambassador to Mexico.  Previously,  he served as the kingdom's Permanent Representative to the United Nations; a post he held for six and a half years.  An expert in the field of international justice, Prince Zeid played a central role in the establishment of the International Criminal Court and served as the first president of the Court's governing body.  He chaired over the course of two years, complex, pioneering negotiations to define "crimes against humanity" which are now cited by courts around the world.  Prince Zeid has been active on other legal issues as well. Following allegations of widespread abuse being committed by UN peacekeepers in the summer of 2004, he was appointed as Advisor to the Secretary-General on Sexual Exploitation and Abuse.In the spring of 2005, he produced a report on this subject; praised subsequently by international civil society for its revolutionary approach.  It provided, for the first time, a comprehensive strategy for the elimination of sexual exploitation and abuse in UN Peacekeeping Operations. For the last three years, Prince Zeid has chaired the Consultative Committee for the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) and led efforts to establish greater strategic direction for the Fund.  His publications include:  'A Nightmare Avoided: Jordan and Suez 1956' in Israel Affairs (Winter 1994), and 'Religious Militancy in the Arab Middle East:  Threats and Responses 1979-1988' in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs (Spring 1989).  Prince Zeid is a member of the Advisory Committee to the Institute for Historical Justice and Reconciliation. Top

*As of November 2013, this award is now known as the Global Achievement Award.