Bill Clinton View Slideshow 
Former President Bill Clinton is one of three people who have been awarded the 2007 TED prize, an annual award given by the Technology, Entertainment and Design conference to individuals whose work has had and will have a powerful and positive impact on society.
The award, announced Monday evening at a reception in San Francisco, was conceived two years ago by TED conference curator Chris Anderson to recognize "remarkable" people who have the ability to change lives. It provides each recipient with $100,000 and the chance to ask for help from the TED community -- leaders in the worlds of business, science, politics and the arts who gather each year in Monterey, California, -- in achieving one grand wish to change the world.
This year's award recognizes Clinton's work to launch global initiatives to address poverty and the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS in Africa and elsewhere through his William J. Clinton Foundation. The award also recognizes his broader role in galvanizing and "persuading so many influential people around the world of their capability -- and responsibility -- to effect positive change," Anderson said in a written statement.
Also winning the prize is E.O. Wilson, a renowned professor emeritus of biology at Harvard University whose name elicited approving gasps and applause from the reception audience. Wilson's work on evolutionary nature, including two Pulitzer Prize-winning books, have led some to call him Darwin's heir and a modern-day Thoreau. His most recent book, The Creation, focuses on the destructive impact humans have had on the planet's other species and is a plea for science and religion to halt their political battles and join forces to save biodiversity.
"For many, (Wilson) is biology's most inspiring voice," said Anderson. "The publication this year of his plea to save life on Earth means the award of this prize could not be more timely."
The third winner is photojournalist James Nachtwey, a long-time war photographer for Time magazine and other publications whose often harrowing and award-winning work has focused significant attention on areas wracked by violence, disease and human rights atrocities.
The winners learned of the award a couple of weeks ago and have several months to choose their wish, which they will announce at the TED conference in March.
Nachtwey said it's an incredible opportunity that will require considerable thought. He told Wired News in a phone interview that he'll try to do something a little outside the realm of his work as a journalist while remaining true to the theme of his lifework.
"My work has been very committed to creating awareness about situations in the world where there's an injustice, where there's something unacceptable happening to people that requires some pressure to change," he says. "You can be assured that whatever it is I decide to make a wish for will have something to do with that."
Previous winners of the award include U2 lead singer Bono and Dr. Larry Brilliant, an infectious disease specialist and head of Google's new philanthropy organization. When Bono won in 2005, the inaugural year of the award, recipients were granted three wishes. He requested TED attendees to help publicize his One campaign and build a community of 1 million activists to help stamp out hunger and poverty in Africa and pressure leaders of the G8 summit to provide aid to the continent. The result was a website and advertising campaign that galvanized 1.4 million people and led the G8 summit to commit to increasing its aid package to Africa by $50 billion.
Brilliant, who won this year, wished to develop a global early-warning disease alert system to help staunch outbreaks of deadly infectious diseases. He'll be reporting on the progress of the alert system at the conference in March.
