'Brilliant' minds honored

The list recognizes young minds who have pushed their fields in innovative directions but remain virtually unknown to the public. The final 10 were selected based on recommendations from award-dispensing organizations, university department heads and editors of scientific publications.

From computer graphics and math to biophysics and robotics, these scientists from research institutions throughout North America have broken ground while testing the boundaries of the known universe. The honorees:

Amy Barger, 34

Barger used data from multiple telescopes to study black holes, becoming a pioneer in studies of light wavelength. A cosmologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she is now studying how the activity of black holes relates to star formation and possible origins of the universe.

Sebastian Thrun, 38

As director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at Stanford University, Thrun is no stranger to how robotics can make human life easier. He hopes his latest project will become the world's first fully autonomous car, boasting lasers, radar, cameras and software geared toward taking driving out of human hands and reducing fatalities from traffic accidents.

Doug James, 33

Computer graphics animations of colliding objects used to take months to construct. Thanks to James' software tools and research at Carnegie Mellon University, it now takes hours. Paid for in part by animated film company Pixar, James' work makes animated collisions look more realistic, meaning better special effects in movies and video games. Real-time "virtual" surgery is a future application.

Nathan Wolfe, 35

In tracing the roots of outbreaks of infectious diseases, Wolfe takes his work from the labs of Johns Hopkins University to the field, running alongside hunters in Cameroon and collecting blood samples from both tribespeople and their prey. His studies of transmission risks in African primate-hunter populations aim to predict outbreaks and eliminate new diseases before they become epidemics.

Alexis Templeton, 34

Templeton, a geologist and microbial biologist at the University of Colorado-Boulder, has discovered more than 40 new species of metal- and mineral-ingesting bacteria while studying the ocean's depths in tiny submarines. In documenting microscopic organisms that can survive without light in extreme temperatures, her studies have challenged traditional ideas about where life can and cannot exist.

Hope Jahren, 36

By studying the inner chemical composition of plant fossils at Johns Hopkins University, Jahren has unearthed clues about a global heat wave that melted much of Earth's ice cover more than 36 million years ago. Her work earned her the American Geophysical Union's Macelwane Medal, making her the only woman to win both this and the Donath Medal for young Earth scientists.

Maryam Mirzakhani, 28

Mathematicians have long struggled to find a practical way to calculate the volume of possible variants of hyperbolic geometric forms. Iranian-born Mirzakhani of Princeton University showed that mathematics may be her best language by making headway toward a solution: calculating the length of loops drawn on hyperbolic surfaces.

Maydianne Andrade, 35

Andrade has logged her research hours while sitting beneath webs of nocturnal, poisonous Australian redback spiders, observing their bizarre mating rituals in which the female spider eats the male. Now at the University of Toronto-Scarborough, she hopes to advance her studies of mate choice and genetic control by constructing a DNA library for the redback with the intent to explain its cannibalistic sexual behavior.

Kevin Eggan, 31

After cloning mice and manipulating cells, Eggan turned to human embryonic stem-cell research at Harvard University. His work has earned both harsh criticism and glowing praise, and he now plans to create human embryos from cells donated by people with Parkinson's disease to advance research about the condition.

John Crocker, 37

As a biophysicist at the University of Pennsylvania, Crocker uses precise measurements and video cameras to observe the sensory capabilities of cells. His discoveries about how cells deconstruct under stress could pave the way for advancements in cancer detection and tissue engineering.