18. The smartest people I know

I know many smart people... here's a list of some of the smartest (just because I thought it'd be interesting). Post your own list (but don't include yourself on the list). If you don't want to read the reasons, at least read the names.
If I forgot you, then you're either not on my Facebook list (I browsed through all the names before I finalized this list) or I just don't know you well enough outside of the world of science. Or maybe you'd be in Tier 3 if there was one.

Tier 1

• Dr. Ruth M. Ruprecht, MD, Ph. D, tenured professor at Harvard Medical School (I worked at her lab one summer) - I think her title says it all, but I'll add some more: in addition to completing a full residency and a postdoctoral fellowship, she has helped make significant advances in HIV research and may be currently working on a successful vaccine. And despite her age and the amount of time that she invests in her job, she is still in amazing physical shape and her purse always matches her shoes (or whatever it's supposed to match).
• Dr. Wynn Volkert, Ph. D, tenured professor of medicine/nuclear engineering/medical physics/radiology/radiopharmaceutical sciences/biochemistry/chemistry at Mizzou, head of at least one of those departments... if it has to do with radiation (especially radiation in medicine) and it's going on at Mizzou, then it's not important if Dr. Volkert isn't involved. Full professor since 1981, Curator's Professor since 2000, Director of Radiopharmaceutical Sciences Institute since 1999, Director of Nuclear Science and Engineering Institute since 2001.
• Dr. Jeffrey Phillips, Pharm. D., associate professor at University of Missouri School of Medicine, Director of Department of Surgery - Applied Research (my current boss). Although Dr. Ruprecht and Dr. Volkert have undertaken more mentally-challenging and difficult-to-execute tasks, Dr. Phillips has been more successful at making a difference in the field of medicine. He invented the drug Zegerid (which is already the fastest-acting and most effective acid-reflux drug available and will soon be the top acid-reflux drug on the market) by applying a very simple principle that nobody ever thought to apply. We are now applying another very simple principle to another problem (ventilator-associated pneumonia, which kills around 10% of patients who are on a ventilator)... but this time, since he has funding now, we are trying to show that an outdated procedure can be resurrected by using new technology... and we can save lives by doing it.
  
• Farrukh Sohail Quraishi, MS (Civil Engineering), MBA - My uncle; graduated #1 in his class at the top engineering college in Pakistan; he got into MIT but didn't go for financial reasons. Don't be fooled by the fact that he's a relative... he's one of the most intelligent people you'll ever meet and has a very analytical personality. He makes good decisions more effectively than anybody I've ever met. Plus, he's a great singer.
  
• Karthikeyan Ettigounder Ponnusamy (yes, I had to type it all out) - Just admitted to Hopkins Med School (btw... Karthik, if you read this, congratulations); already has a patent on some random medical device that I don't know much about; got a 1600 on his SAT along with perfect grades in high school and a 37 on the MCAT (unless he re-took it). I actually don't know much about his personality because he never really talked much, but you could tell that he's one of those guys that doesn't talk because he doesn't want people to realize just how smart he is (out of modesty). One of the few people who I might admit is smarter than me.
  
• Matt Watermann - The only person who can consistently change my opinions about issues - I honestly think that he was sent by Satan. As much as I may hate to admit it, he was better than me at chess in high school and although I may be better at math (and thereby anything related to math, i.e. Physics, some chemistry, etc), he seems to be a more well-rounded individual. We both love to discuss historical and current issues, but I think that he's better at that. Another one of the few people who might be smarter than me and still somehow manages to find the time to run three marathons a day and then go lift weights for twelve hours after that.
  Oh, and in case you don't know, I've lived with him for well over a year now.
  
• Nick Dashman - He's a lot like Matt (crazy-smart, modest, athletic)... except instead of a star cross-country runner/chess player, he was an all-conference linebacker. I don't know where he is now; I haven't talked to him since high school.
• Robert J. Fischer - My seventh-grade math teacher - He taught me techniques that my high school calculus teacher didn't know; I attribute a good portion of my successes in life to him. He has turned countless promising students into geniuses.
  
• Honorable mentions:
• Anis Khimani (has a Ph. D. in virology and did his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard). He definitely deserves to be in Tier 1, but it's hard for any scientist to match Dr. Volkert and Dr. Ruprecht... and Karthik, for that matter.
• Mike Herrmann (teacher at my high school; BS in biology and BA in education) - he could have led a much more "glorious" life as a doctor or a professor, but I think that he does the world a lot of good by teaching promising students how to become good doctors and good resesarchers.
• Tim Morrison (teacher at my high school; BS in biochemistry and BA in education) - another great teacher, can't say any less about him than I can about Mike Herrmann.
• James Whitney (former co-worker at Harvard; has a Ph. D. in virology from McGill University in Canada)
• Ruijiang Song (another Harvard co-worker; Ph. D. in virology from Hopkins)... I don't know them too well beyond the world of science, but they were definitely geniuses.
• Added on 1-27-07 (I don't know why I forgot him before) - Saad T. Siddiqui - One of my cousins... another person that might be smarter than me (might)... but I haven't talked to him much recently.
  

Tier 2
No particular order: Sridhar Kandala (friend from Mizzou), Vasu Polineni (another friend from Mizzou), Dennis Yungbluth (another friend from Mizzou, one of my roommates), Manu ben Johny (friend from high school), Mike Howe (high school chemistry teacher), Srikar Rao (another friend from high school), Josh Jacob (random person I haven't talked to since high school), Emery Cox (another random person from high school), Nick Woodard (friend from high school; I still talk to him), Kevin John (random person from high school... he's on my AIM list, but I rarely talk to him), Dustin Shipp (haven't seen him since high school), Jane Song (another random high school person... I think she's the only woman on the list).

Added to Tier 2 because I forgot them before:
Greg Thompson (from high school)