Dr. Mohammad Yunus has dedicated his life to creating opportunities for the world's poor who now comprise over 60 percent of the world's population but live off only 5 percent of its income. For thirty years, he has provided micro-credit to tiny businesses in the poorest villages of Bangladesh. With loans of only one or two dollars, small family businesses could free themselves from unscrupulous money lenders who starved their small operations of any profit, thus perpetuating the local poverty.

In 1983, Dr. Yunus formed the Grameen (meaning village) bank to break this devastating cycle and provide low interest, flexible loans for business, housing, insurance, and education. The Bank now services over 7 million customers with an astounding 99% repayment rate. Dr. Yunus and the Grameen Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for improving the lives of so many of the poor. The program is now expanding to other countries besides Bangladesh. One recent example is the substantial backing from Mexican telecom billionaire Carlo Slim, who plans to start a micro-finance bank in Mexico City. The bank will use $45 million of initial capital to issue over 80,000 loans during its initial phase of operation. .

Transdisciplinary science and engineering could become the perfect compliment to the work of Dr. Yunus. Transdisciplinary thinking examines the whole problem without artificial borders. Micro-finance has proved its worth in a number of countries around the world. As the idea extends to other areas like health care and telecommunications, the original approach must be integrated with social and infrastructure projects or it may put at risk any gains previously attained. By merging cross-disciplinary approaches like transdisciplinarity with practical first-hand, on-the-ground experience and understanding, the momentum of Dr. Yunus' work can be propelled into a new sustainable future for over half of all humanity. Beyond the obvious humanitarian aspects, there are benefits of this unique combination to the industrialized nations as well. When small low-level economies are formed, they can quickly evolve into small consumer markets which become more receptive to modern products and services. While each individual consumes only a small sum, the combined spending power of so many can create sizable markets for specialized, targeted products and services, thus propelling economic growth everywhere. Labor costs remain low and product quality is high because each little business is motivated directly by family well-being. Small family businesses must maintain efficient operations and avoid extravagances to remain viable. Furthermore, with technology pervading these micro-markets, small businesses will get access to the spending power of the industrialized nations, which can substantially accelerate trade.

Dr. Yunus has already begun to put cell phones in the hands of the women entrepreneurs. The methods discovered through this transdisciplinarity partnership are directly applicable within industrialized nations. Not only do these abundant nations have pockets of poverty themselves, at times, they experience unusual events which are economically destabilizing. The aftermath of natural disasters like hurricanes Katrina and Ike need integrated thinking backed by coordinated action to alleviate the immediate devastation and often lingering poverty within the region. Recessions or other economic crises cause disruptions which last for years. To get things moving again, governments must act, but an economic response alone may not be enough to quickly reverse a decline. Confidence in the monetary system will only return when people's basic needs are met. Lessons learned from past disasters show inadequate, disjointed responses can drag out any anticipated recovery. The effects ripple across the world in complex ways which can best be understood with transdisciplinary models.

The methods learned by helping poorer nations can be put to work in transitioning people through difficult periods. It is this very reason that transdisciplinarity science and engineering should be employed to design an integrated and lasting solution. The techniques developed by Dr. Yunus and enhanced by transdisciplinary methods, offer new options, tailored to a specific culture, geography and economy. New solutions can lift the lives of everyone and benefit the overall world economy.

Yuan T. Lee is a Taiwanese born chemist best known for his Nobel Prize winning work in the field of crossed molecular beam research. In 1986 he received the Nobel Prize, along with Herschbach and Canadian scientist John C. Polanyi for their joint work in crossed beam molecular research, or more particularly, for their contributions concerning the dynamics of chemical elementary processes. Their groundbreaking work made it possible to analyze much larger and more complex chemical molecules than those previously studied. Many years after Charles Townes won a Nobel for his research laying the groundwork for the laser, Yuan Lee took that work steps further.

Lee's designs and experiments with molecular beam devices sent streams of intensely packed molecules into each other at supersonic speeds. Scientists were then able to view chemical reactions and discover how and why they take place. This knowledge has contributed to today's powerful lasers used by many researchers from diverse disciplines. The first Taiwanese born Nobel prize winner Lee, in January 1994, after 32 years of research and teaching in the U.S., he took the important step of returning to his home country, Taiwan, to serve as President of Academia Sinica.

Among some of the awards and recognitions he has received over the years include: Alfred P. Sloan Fellow, 1969-1971; Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Teacher Scholar Grant, Receipient 1971-1974; Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Science, 1975; Fellow, American Physical Society, 1976; John Simon Guggenheim Fellow, 1976-1977; Member, National Academy of Sciences, 1979; Member, Academia Sinica, Taiwan, China, 1980; Honorary Professor, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Science, Beijing, China, 1980; Honorary Professor, Fudan University, Shanghai, China, 1980; Miller Professorship, University of California, Berkeley, California, 1981-1982; Ernest O. Lawrence Award, U.S. Department of Energy, 1981; Sherman Fairchild Distinguished Scholar, California Institute of Technology, 1983; Harrison Howe Award, Rochester Section, American Chemical Society, 1983; Nobel Prize in 1986; Peter Debye Award of Physical Chemistry, American Chemical Society, 1986; National Medal of Science, 1986; Honorary Professor, Chinese IJniversity of Science and Technology, Hofei, Anhuei, China, 1986; Honorary Doctor of Science Degree, University of Waterloo, 1986.

With his seminal dissertation entitled "Kommunikation mit Automaten" (Communication with Automata), Dr. Carl Adam Petri created a completely new scientific method and theory which transcends a range of disciplines including mathematics, computer science, engineering, chemistry, manufacturing, medicine, economy and many more. This new branch of science, which initiated a myriad of research projects, PhD dissertations, books, research and experience papers, is widely known under the name Petri nets. The theory behind Petri nets supports fundamental investigation of the laws of information flow in distributed systems, be they technical, organizational, social or economic systems.

Petri nets and its concepts have been extended and developed, both in theory and applications. Petri nets have been used to model, visualize and analyze process and design abstractions in many technical and organizational disciplines. There are even ISO standards, used in the process industry, which require models based on Petri nets. The milestones Dr. Petri set and the impact he had on industry and academia are further emphasized by more than 20 members of the research institute he headed at GMD the former German National Research Institute in Computer Science, now part of the system of Fraunhofer Institutes  who have become professors at renowned international universities. Dr. Petri's personality and scientific work have also been honored by an illustrious number of awards including:

•  The Bundesverdienstkreuz I. Klasse der Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Order of Merit, 1988),
• Honorary Professor at University of Hamburg (1988)
• Elected Member of Academia Europaea (London, 1989),
• Konrad-Zuse-Medal for outstanding contributions to the development of Informatics (1993)
• Member of New York Academy of Sciences (1997)
• Werner-von-Siemens-Ring for outstanding merits in Natural Sciences and Technology (1997)
• First grant of the Carl Adam Petri Distinguished Technical Achievement Award by the Society for Design and Process Science (1998)
• Doctor Honoris Causa awarded by the University of Zaragoza (1999)
• Commandeur in de orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw (2003)

Professor Ali Nayfeh is a University Distinguished Professor at Virginia Tech, Department of Engineering Science and Mechanics. He earned three academic degrees (BS, MS, and Ph.D.) in four and a half years in engineering science and aeronautics and astronautics from Stanford University. He is one of the most prolific engineering scholars in the world — his 10 books, 32 book chapters, over 400 journal papers, over 500 conference papers, and over 120 invited lectures represent his wide-ranging and penetrating contributions to the engineering literature.

Currently, he is the Editor-in-Chief of Nonlinear Dynamics and Journal of Vibration and Control. Professor Nayfeh advanced the-state-of-the-art in all fields of engineering, including fluid mechanics, structural interaction, structural control, biomedical, and ship and submarine dynamics. He extended his work to power systems and power electronics. His method of multiple scales is the method of choice for treating nonlinear vibration problems. His work has been cited by almost everyone working in the area of applied mechanics and every graduate student should begin his work by studying Professor Nayfeh’s books. It is amazing that his citation exceeds 15,000. Professor Nayfeh supervised over 75 doctoral and postdoctoral students.

Nayfeh was awarded the Gold Medal of Kuwait Prize in basic sciences in 1981. He is the recipient of the AIAA Pendray Aerospace Literature Award for his seminal contributions to the aerospace community (1995). In 1996 he received the ASME J. P. Den Hartog Award in recognition of lifetime contributions to the teaching and practice of vibration engineering, and in 2005 he received the ASME Lyapunov Award for life long contributions to nonlinear dynamics. He is the first recipient of the newly established Lyapunov Award. In 2005 he received Virginia's Lifetime Achievement in Science Award, presented by the Science Museum of Virginia. His academic career and pioneering research work have earned him Fellow memberships in many societies. He received Honorary Doctorates from overseas universities, such as Marine Technical University of St. Petersburg in Russia, the Technical University of Munich in Germany, and Politechnika Szczecinska of Poland.

Dr. Chun-Yen Chang was the former President of National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. He received his BSEE degree from the National Chenk Kung University (NCKU), and MS and Ph.D. degrees from the National Chiao Tung University (NCTU). Due to his pioneering Ph.D. thesis in 1969, Prof. Chang became the first ever graduate student to receive the first domestic Ph.D. degree in Engineering in Taiwan. He served as a research fellow at Bell Labs, a professor at NCKU, the dean of research, dean of engineering and dean of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at NCTU and President of National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. He also was the founding Director of National Nano-Device Labs in Taiwan. In addition to his presidency at NCTU, Dr. Chang held several other positions and affiliations including Foreign Associate of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering, member of Academia Sinica of the Republic of China, National Chair Professor, National Policy Advisor to the Office of the President of the Republic of China, and Science and Technology Advisor to the Executive Yuan of the Republic of China. Dr. Chang has received 26 patents collectively in the US and in Taiwan, and has published over 300 technical papers. He is the author of the book Made by Taiwan, promoting the idea of innovation and creativity for the future of Taiwan as a world leader in technology. He has made pioneering contributions to various semiconductor devices, and is a key inventor in electronic technology. Among his major inventions, most worthy of mention are "The method of low pressure MOCVD using triethyl Gallium," Zn incorporation, boron penetration and nitridation in silicon dioxide, and modulation-doped base transistor.

He has built a world-class electronic teaching and research institute at NCTU, supervising over 50 Ph.D.and 300 MS students who later become the leaders and backbone of the semiconductor industry in Taiwan. He is considered as a patriarch of Taiwan's semiconductor industry. Through his visionary leadership and hard work, Dr. Chang has propelled the NCTU to become the leading university in the education and research in electronics in the world. The faculty and students in the NCTU have consistently published the most research papers in IEEE since 1996.He was the recipient of Engineering medal of Chinese Institute of Electrical Engineers, of an academic achievement award in engineering from the Ministry of Education and the distinguished research award of the National Science Council, Republic of China, as well as the recipient of the 1989-1990 international traveling award granted by the China Foundation to the distinguished scholars in the Republic of China, and recipient of advancement for outstanding chair professorship, since 1995.

Dr. Korf received his M.D. degree from Cornell University Medical College and his Ph.D. degree in genetics and cell biology from Rockefeller University. He then completed training in pediatrics, pediatric neurology, and genetics at Children's Hospital, Boston. He served as clinical director in the Division of Genetics at Children's Hospital from 1986 to 1999 and as the medical director of the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics from 1999-2002. Currently he is the Wayne H. and Sara Crews Finley Professor of Genetics and Chairman, Department of Genetics at University of Alabama at Birmingham. In his previous appointment at Harvard Medical School he served as co-director of the course Genetics, Developmental and Reproductive Biology, taught to all first year students at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Korf received his M.D. degree from Cornell University Medical College and his Ph.D. degree in genetics and cell biology from Rockefeller University. He then completed training in pediatrics, pediatric neurology, and genetics at Children's Hospital, Boston. He served as clinical director in the Division of Genetics at Children's Hospital from 1986 to 1999 and as the medical director of the Harvard-Partners Center for Genetics and Genomics from 1999-2002. Currently he is the Wayne H. and Sara Crews Finley Professor of Genetics and Chairman, Department of Genetics at University of Alabama at Birmingham. In his previous appointment at Harvard Medical School he served as co-director of the course Genetics, Developmental and Reproductive Biology, taught to all first year students at Harvard Medical School.

On January 31, 1971, Dr. Edgar Mitchell, then a U.S. Navy Captain, embarked on a journey through outer space of some 500,000 miles that resulted in becoming the sixth man to walk on the moon. That historic journey terminated safely nine days later on February 9, 1971 and was made in the company of two other men of valor - Admiral Alan Shepard and Colonel Stuart Roosa. Scientist, test pilot, naval officer, astronaut, entrepreneur, author and lecturer, Dr. Mitchell's extraordinary and varied career personifies humankind's eternal thrust to widen its horizons as well as explore its inner soul.

His academic background includes a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Management from Carnegie Mellon University in 1952, a Bachelor of Science in Aeronautics from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in 1961 and a Doctor of Science degree in Aeronautics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964. In addition, he has received three honorary doctorates from New Mexico State University, the University of Akron and Carnegie Mellon University. In 1973, a year after retiring from the U.S. Navy and the Astronaut Program, Dr. Mitchell founded the Institute of Noetic Sciences. It is a foundation organized to sponsor research in the nature of consciousness as it relates to cosmology and causality. He is also a co-founder of the Association of Space Explorers, an international organization founded in 1984 for all who share the experience of space travel. Both organizations are educational, developed to provide new understanding of the human condition resulting from the epoch of space exploration.

He is author of Psychic Exploration: A Challenge for Science, G.P. Putnam and sons, 1974, a major reference book; and The Way of the Explorer (in publication). He is also author and/or interviewee in dozens of articles in both professional and popular periodicals. As a lecturer, he delivers 25 to 50 addresses annually on cosmology, human potential and topics relating to the evolving future of the species on planet Earth. His most current lecture series discusses the Implications of recent discoveries in science as they affect our individual lives in the home, the workplace and society - at - large. He is a frequent guest on radio and television talk shows and has been featured in several documentary films relative to his interests. Retiring from the government service in 1972, Dr. Mitchell continues to write, speak and do research for a number of new books. He is a consultant to a limited number of corporations and foundations. Dr. Mitchell's honors and awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the USN Distinguished Service Medal, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal and the NASA Group Achievement Awards.

Professor Oktay Sinanoglu has been nominated twice for Nobel Prize. He became the first Turkish member of the American National Academy of Science and Art. He is a Turkish scientist of theoretical chemistry and molecular biology. At age 28, he became the youngest person in 20th century at Yale University to attain status as a full professor. Sinanoglu was born in 1935 in Bari, Italy where his father served as a consul general. The family returned to Turkey at the start of World War II in 1939. In 1953, he attended TED Yenisehir Lisesi high school in Ankara, and after graduating won a scholarship for education of chemistry in the United States. In 1956, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in chemical engineering with the highest rank. In only eight months, he graduated from MIT in 1957 with the highest degree. In two years, he finished his doctorate at UC Berkeley. In 1960, Sinanoglu started working as associate professor at Yale University. He theorized the "Many-Electron Theory of Atoms and Molecules" in 1962 by solving a mathematical theorem that had been unsolved for 50 years. The same year, he earned the Alfred P. Sloan prize. He was appointed full professor in 1961. He got his second life-long chair in Yale in Molecular Biology. Professor Sinanoglu was the first to earn the Alexander von Humboldt's Science Prize in 1973. In 1975, he won the award of Japan's International Outstanding Scientist.

In the 1980s, he theorized a new method from 180 theories concerning mathematics and physics, considered revolutionary, which enables chemists to predict the ways in which chemicals combine in the laboratory and to solve other complex problems in chemistry using simple pictures and periodic tables. Also, he took his place in the Academy of Arts & Sciences. In 1993, he moved to Turkey to teach at the Yildiz Teknik Universitesi, and officially retired at the age of 67. Yet his scientific researches have not ceased. He received several international and local awards concerning his scientific and social contributions and efforts. He has been to many places including Asia and Latin America. He tried to establish strong communications between Japan, India and Turkey. Because of his efforts, he was given the title "Special Emissary" of Japan-Turkey. He worked for better education, purified language in Turkey most of his life and strived to form a conscious generation.

Professor Gunter Valet studied theoretical physics (1961-62) and medicine (1962-68) in Munich, Freiburg and Montpellier, graduated as MD with subsequent clinical formation and research work at the Max-Planck-Institut  Biochemie (MPIB) in Munich (1968-71). A research fellowship concerning the biochemistry of the human complement system at Scripps Clinic & Research Foundation, La Jolla, CA (1972-73) was followed by habilitation at the Ludwig-Maximilian-University, Munich in 1974. Appointments as professor for experimental medicine in 1981, head of the independent Mildred-Scheel Laboratory for cancer cell research at MPIB, Martinsried (1981-1989) and as head of the cell biochemistry group since 1989 provided the possibility for medicine directed transdisciplinary molecular cytometry research work. The development of sensitive fluorescence cell function assays and of multiparameter flow cytometers opened the way for the analysis of single cell functions as fast indicators for alterations of disease activity in patients (1981-95).

The establishment of algorithms data pattern analysis (data sieving) for cytometric and other multiparameter data (1987) represents the basis of the predictive medicine by cytomics concept (2001). It permits therapy dependent disease course predictions for individual patients, thus representing a new potential for the improvement of medical services in everyday medicine. It seems also suitable for the discovery of new drug targets. The proposal of a human cytome project (2004) has the potential for the establishment of a generalized molecular cell and disease classification system since cells represent the elementary function units of organisms with diseases emerging as consequence of molecular alterations in cells and cell systems (cytomes). Refer to (http://www.biochem.mpg.de/valet/cellbio.html#tabcont) for Professor Gunter Valet's numerous scientific articles.