A00016 - Hassan Rouhani, Seventh President of Iran

Hassan Rouhani (Persian:  حسن روحانی‎), born November 12, 1948, became the 7th President of Iran, in office since 2013. He is also a former lawmaker, academic and diplomat. Beginning in 1999, Rouhani became a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts.  He was also a member of the Expediency Council since 1991, a member of the Supreme National Security Council since 1989, and head of the Center for Strategic Research since 1992.

Rouhani was deputy speaker of the 4th and 5th terms of the Parliament of Iran (Majlis) and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005. In the latter capacity, Rouhani was the country's top negotiator with the EU three,  the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, on nuclear technology in Iran, and has also served as a Shi'ite ijtihadi cleric, and economic trade negotiator. He expressed official support for upholding the rights of ethnic and religious minorities. In 2013, he appointed former miner and Isfahani legislator Eshaq Jahangiri as his vice-president.

On May 7, 2013, Rouhani registered for the presidential election that was held on June 14, 2013. He said that, if elected, he would prepare a "civil rights charter", restore the economy and improve rocky relations with Western nations.  Rouhani was viewed as politically moderate. As early vote counts began coming in, he took a large lead. He was elected as President of Iran on June 15, defeating Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and four other candidates. He took office on August 3, 2013. In 2013, TIME magazine named him 9th of the Most Influential People in the World.  In domestic policy, he encouraged personal freedom and free access to information, improved women's rights by appointing female foreign ministry spokespersons, and was described as a centrist and reformist who improved Iran's diplomatic relations with other countries through exchanging conciliatory letters.

A00015 - Idris Muhammad, Multi-Genre Drummer

Idris Muhammad (Arabic: إدريس محمد‎; born Leo Morris; November 13, 1939 – July 29, 2014) was an American jazz drummer who recorded extensively with many musicians, including Ahmad Jamal, Lou Donaldson, and Pharoah Sanders, among many others.

At 16 years old, one of Muhammad's earliest recorded sessions as a drummer was on Fats Domino's 1956 hit "Blueberry Hill".   He changed his name in the 1960s upon his conversion to Islam. In 1966, he married Dolores "LaLa" Brooks, former member of the singing group known as the Crystals.  Brooks converted to Islam with Muhammad and went for a time under the name Sakinah Muhammad. They separated in 1999. Together, they had two sons and two daughters, and Muhammad had one daughter from a previous marriage to Gracie Lee Edwards-Morris. Pharoah Sanders's son Idris is named after Idris Muhammad

Muhammad was an endorser of Istanbul Agop Cymbals. 

In 2012, Xlibris released the book Inside The Music: The Life of Idris Muhammad, which Muhammad wrote with his friend Britt Alexander.

He died on July 29, 2014.

The principal discography of Idris Muhammad reads as follows:

• 1970: Black Rhythm Revolution! (Prestige)
• 1971: Peace and Rhythm (Prestige)
• 1974: Power of Soul (Kudu)
• 1976: House of the Rising Sun (Kudu)
• 1977: Turn This Mutha Out (Kudu)
• 1977: Could Heaven Ever Be Like This
• 1978: Boogie to the Top
• 1978: You Ain't No Friend of Mine
• 1979: Fox Huntin'
• 1980: Kabsha (Theresa Records)
• 1980: Make It Count
• 1992: My Turn
• 1998: Right Now

A00014 - Harun Farocki, Filmmaker of Modern Life

Farocki, Harun

Harun Farocki (January 9, 1944 – July 30, 2014) was a German filmmaker.

Farocki was born as Harun El Usman Faroqhi in Neutitschein, Sudetenland.  His father, Abdul Qudus Faroqhi, had immigrated to Germany from India in the 1920s; his German mother had been evacuated from Berlin due to the Allied bombing of Germany.  Farockii simplified the spelling of his surname as a young man. After World War II, Farocki grew up in India and Indonesia before resettling in West Germany.

Farocki, who was deeply influenced by Bertolt Brecht and Jean-Luc Godard,  studied at the German Film and Television Academy in West Berlin. He began making films — from the very beginning, they were non-narrative essays on the politics of imagery — in the mid-1960s.

From 1993 to 1999, Farocki taught at the University of California, Berkeley.  He later was a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. 

Farocki made over 90 films, the vast majority of them short experimental documentaries.  Farocki attended the Deutsche Film-und Fernsehakademie Berlin from 1966 to 1968.

Farocki's work was included in the 2004-05 Carnegie International at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 

The filmography of Harun Farocki includes the following:

(D = Director, E = Editor, S = Screenplay, P = Production)

• 1969: Die Worte des Vorsitzenden (The Words of The Chairman)
• 1969: Nicht löschbares Feuer  (Inextinguishable Fire) (D)
• 1970: Die Teilung aller Tage (The Division of All Days) (D, E, S)
• 1971: Eine Sache, die sich versteht (D, S, P)
• 1975: Auf Biegen oder Brechen (S)
• 1978: Zwischen zwei Kriegen (Between Two Wars) (D, E, S, P)
• 1981: Etwas wird sichtbar (Before Your Eyes Vietnam) (D, S, P)
• 1983: Ein Bild (An Image)
• 1983: Jean-Marie Straub and Daniele Huillet at work on Franz Kafka's "Amerika"
• 1985: Betrogen (Betrayed) (D, S)
• 1986: Wie man sieht (As You See) (D, S, P)
• 1987: Bilderkrieg (D)
• 1987: Die Schulung
• 1989: Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des Krieges (Images of the World and the Inscription of War) (D, S, P)
• 1990: Leben: BRD (How to live in the Federal Republic of Germany) (D, S, P)
• 1991: Videogramme einer Revolution (Videograms of a Revolution) (D, S, P)
• 1993: Was ist los? (What's up?) (D, S)
• 1994: Die Umschulung
• 1995: Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik (Workers Leaving the Factory)
• 1995: Schnittstelle
• 1996: Die Bewerbung (The Interview) (TV) (D, S)
• 1996: Der Auftritt (The Appearance)
• 1997: Stilleben (Still Life) (D, S)
• 1997: Nach dem Spiel (P)
• 1998: Worte und Spiele
• 2000: Die innere Sicherheit
• 2000: Gefängnisbilder (Prison Images) (D, S)
• 2001: Auge/Maschine
• 2001: Die Schöpfer der Einkaufswelten (The Creators of the Shopping Worlds) (D, S)
• 2003: Erkennen und Verfolgen (D, S, P)
• 2004: Nicht ohne Risiko (D, S, P)
• 2005: Die Hochzeitsfabrik (P)
• 2005: Ghosts (S)
• 2006: Am Rand der Städte (P)
• 2007: Aufschub
• 2007: Respite - first episode of Memories (Jeonju Digital Project 2007)
• 2009: Zum Vergleich (D, S)
• 2009/2010: Serious Games I-IV, Video series
• 2012 Barbara (S)
• 2014: Phoenix (S)

Farocki's first wife, Ursula Lefkes, whom he married in 1966, died in 1996.  His survivors included his second wife, Antje Ehmann, whom he married in 2001; his twin daughters from his first marriage, Annabel Lee and Larissa Lu; and eight grandchildren. 

A00013 - Joko Widodo, Indonesian Politician

Widodo, Joko
Joko Widodo (b. June 21, 1961) is an Indonesian politician who became the governor of Jakarta. He was often better known by his nickname Jokowi. He was previously the mayor of Surakarta (often also known as Solo in Indonesia). He was nominated by his party, the Indonesian Democratic Party - Struggle (PDI-P), to run in the 2012 Jakarta gubernatorial election with Basuki Tjahaja Purnama (often known as Ahok) as his running mate. He was elected governor of Jakarta on September 20, 2012 after a second round runoff election in which he defeated the incumbent governor Fauzi Bowo.  Jokowi's win was widely seen as reflecting popular voter support for "new" or "clean" leaders rather than the "old" style of politics in Indonesia, even though Jokowi was over 50 years old at the time.  

Jokowi's popularity rose sharply after his election to the high-profile position of governor of Jakarta in 2012. During 2013 and early 2014, he was seen as a potential PDI-P candidate for the Indonesian presidential election in 2014. 

A00012 - Casey Kasem, Wholesome Voice of Pop Radio

Kasem, Casey

Casey Kasem (b. April 27, 1932, Detroit, Mich.— d. June 15, 2014, Gig Harbor, Wash.), was born Kemal Amin Kasem. Kasem was born in Detroit, Michigan, on April 27, 1932, to Lebanese Druze immigrant parents. They settled in Michigan, where they worked as grocers.

Kasem became an American disc jockey who filled the airways for 34 years (1970–2004) with his weekly nationally syndicated Top 40 radio shows, including American Top 40, which he created and hosted with a hallmark easygoing style. During the program’s four-hour format, Kasem provided listeners not only with an upbeat analysis of the songs that had made the list (gleaned from Billboard magazine’s most popular singles of the previous week) but also with personal tidbits about the artists behind the music. Kasem’s courtly voice and popular catchphrases, including his signature sign-off, “Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars,” made him one of the country’s most recognizable radio personalities. Kasem also fronted American Top 20 and American Top 10.  He retired as host from those radio shows in 2009. In addition to his radio work, Kasem appeared in a few films, including The Incredible Two-Headed Transplant(1971) and Ghostbusters (1984, as himself), and provided the voice of Shaggy on the cartoon series Scooby-Doo and for Robin “the Boy Wonder” on the animated The Batman/Superman Hour (1968–69). He was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame in 1992.

A00011 - Fouad Ajami, Commentator and Expert in Arab History

Fouad A. Ajami (Arabic: فؤاد عجمي‎; September 18, 1945 – June 22, 2014), was a MacArthur Fellowship winning, Lebanese-born American university professor and writer on Middle Eastern issues. He was a senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution.

Ajami was an outspoken supporter of the Iraq War, the nobility of which he believed there "can be no doubt".

000010 - Hunein Maassab, Developer of Nasal Spray Flu Vaccine

Hunein Maassab (b.  June 11, 1926, Damascus,  - d.  February 1, 2014, North Carolina) was the developer of nasal spray flu vaccine.  He was born on June 11, 1926, in Damascus. His father was a jeweler. He enrolled at the University of Missouri, where he received a bachelor’s degree in biology in 1950 and a master’s in physiology and pharmacology in 1952. He then moved to Michigan, where he earned a master’s degree in public health in 1954 and his doctorate in epidemiology in 1956.

"John" Hunein F. Maassab was a Professor in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan since 1960 and served as the chairman from 1991-1997. He founded and directed the Hospital and Molecular Epidemiology program in the Department of Epidemiology. Dr. Maassab was a member of several scientific organizations including the American Public Health Association and the American Society of Microbiology and was a Fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. Dr. Maassab had over 170 publications that range from studies on the basic biology of viruses to research on the development of methods to control viral infections.

Dr. Maassab was awarded patents for the development of a cold-adapted influenza virus and for an attenuated respiratory syncytial virus. Dr. Maassab received the 1997 Award for Science and Technology from Popular Science for the development of the cold-adapted influenza virus. This discovery led him to develop a flu vaccine that can be administered by a nasal spray as an alternative to the "flu shot."

Influenza, commonly called "the flu," is an infection of the respiratory tract caused by the influenza virus. Compared with most other viral respiratory infections, such as the common cold, influenza infection often causes a more severe illness. Most people who get the flu recover completely in one to two weeks, but some people develop serious and potentially life-threatening medical complications, such as pneumonia. Between 25-50 million people in the United States are infected each year with the influenza virus. In an average year, infection with influenza virus is associated with 20,000 deaths nationwide and more than 100,000 hospitalizations. Approximately 90 million workdays are lost and 30 million school days are missed each year as a result of influenza.

Vaccination can prevent disease caused by influenza. Unlike vaccines used against other viruses such as measles, mumps, rubella and varicella, people need to be vaccinated annually against influenza. This is because the influenza virus often changes its genetic composition to evade the immune system of its host. Thus, people are susceptible to influenza virus infection throughout life. The current vaccine used for flu is a "killed" virus vaccine that is administered by injection. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a flu shot for healthy adults over age 50 and high-risk children and adults. Unfortunately, less than one percent of healthy children and less than 30 percent of healthy adults, are routinely vaccinated. Achieving adequate flu protection is difficult because each year a new vaccine must be developed that is appropriate for the specific strainsof influenza likely to circulate. Currently, there is concern n the public health community regarding the timely supply of vaccine for the coming flu season.

In 1967, Dr. Maassab published a paper in the journal Nature describing the adaptation of an influenza virus for growth at a low temperature in culture. Importantly, this "cold-adapted" virus does not grow at higher temperatures such as those found in the lungs. However, the cold-adapted virus can replicate in the nasal passages where the temperature is lower. The cold-adapted virus cannot survive in the lungs where the body temperature is higher, and therefore cannot cause disease. The limited viral growth seen in the nasal passages may stimulate an immune response that may protect a person from infections from influenza viruses. This protection also prevents the spread of influenza to others.

Dr. Maassab developed an intranasal cold-adapted live virus vaccine that may provide promising alternative to the "flu shot." Using a nasal mist, an attenuated (weakened) live form of the influenza virus is sprayed into the nasal passages, where influenza viruses enter the body.

The public health significance of this finding for the development of an influenza vaccine was apparent. By using nasal mist technology to eliminate the fear of injections, this method may offer the first practical way to immunize children and adults on a large scale annually in the near future.