Walter Isaacson

Walter Isaacson (born May 20 1952, in New Orleans, Louisiana) is the President and CEO of the Aspen Institute. He has been the Chairman and CEO of CNN and the Managing Editor of "TIME". He is the author of "Einstein: His Life and Universe" (2007),cite web |url= http://www.jstandard.com/articles/3421/1/Walter-Isaacson%92s-Albert-Einstein:-Rebel-with-a-cause |title= Walter Isaacson’s Albert Einstein: Rebel with a cause |author= Dr. Miryam Wahrman |work= Jewish Standard |date= 2 November 2007 |quote= Isaacson had intended to complete the book about the legendary scientist at that point [the late 1990s] , but learned that the last of Einstein’s papers were not to be made available until 2006.… The Einstein archives that were unsealed in 2006 were located in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, with copies of all documents also housed at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. Isaacson visited both sites to gather information but mostly went to Caltech, where the Einstein papers project is located… ] "Benjamin Franklin: An American Life" (2003) and of "Kissinger: A Biography" (1992), and is the co-author, with Evan Thomas, of "The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made" (1986).

After graduating from New Orleans' Isidore Newman School and a brief stint at Deep Springs College, Isaacson attended Harvard College (B.A. in history and literature) and University of Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar at Pembroke College (M.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics).

He began his career in journalism at "The Sunday Times" of London and then the "New Orleans Times-Picayune"/States-Item. He joined "TIME" in 1978 and served as a political correspondent, national editor, and editor of new media before becoming the magazine's fourteenth managing editor in 1996. He became Chairman and CEO of CNN in 2001, and then president and CEO of the Aspen Institute in 2003.

He is the chairman of the board of Teach for America. He is on the Board of Tulane University, Society for Science & the Public, and UAL Corporation (United Airlines). He serves on the national council of The Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, the National Constitution Center, and on the Advisory Committee of the National Institutes of Health. In October 2005, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco appointed Isaacson vice chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, a thirty-three-member policymaking board, led by Norman C. Francis, the president of Xavier University. In December 2007, he was appointed by President George W. Bush to the chairman of the U.S.-Palestinian Public-Private Partnership, which seeks to create economic and educational opportunities in the Palestinian territories. [ [http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/12/20071203-7.html President Bush Meets with U.S.-Palestinian Public-Private Partnership, White House press release] ] He also serves as the cochair of the U.S.-Vietnamese Dialogue on Agent Orange, which in January 2008 announced completion of a project to contain the dioxin left behind by the U.S. at the Da Nang air base and plans to build health centers and a dioxin laboratory in the affected regions. [ [http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/02/01/asia/AS-GEN-Vietnam-US-Agent-Orange.php U.S. and Vietnam Take Steps to Control Agent Orange Contamination, Associated Press, Feb. 1, 2008] ]

References

External links

* [http://www.aspeninstitute.org/site/c.huLWJeMRKpH/b.3937999/k.A0AD/Articles_By_Walter_Isaacson.htm List of recent articles by Walter Isaacson]
* [http://www.theskepticsguide.org/skepticsguide/podcastinfo.asp?pid=150 An interview with Walter Isaacson about his book "Einstein: His Life and Universe"]