Each year, the World Economic Forum selects innovative and socially-minded young people to receive its Young Global Leaders award.
Awardees, who are all under the age of 40, and 20 of them hail from the US this year.
This year'sYoung Global Leadersclass includes leaders from an array of backgrounds. Some are political and and community leaders, others are inventors, CEOs, philanthropists, and scientists working on revolutionary ideas.
Once chosen by the WEF, these leaders are a part of the program for five years, and they attend meetings, participate in initiatives and research, and work with the rest of the WEF's community.
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Here are the 20 US leaders making a worldwide impact.
Feng Zhang is a professor at MIT
Why he made the list: Zhang is "one of the most acclaimed young scientists in the world and a pioneer of CRISPR, the breakthrough gene-editing technique that lets scientists manipulate the genetic code of organisms."
Adam Kinzinger is a Republican congressman from Illinois
Why he made the list: Kinzinger is "a
Aja Brown is the mayor of Compton, California
Why she made the list:
Ankur Jain is the vice president of Tinder
Why he made the list:
Brad Henderson is a senior partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group
Why he made the list:
Brie Loskota is the executive director of the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California
Why she made the list:
Graves Tompkins is managing director and global head of capital partnering at General Atlantic LLC
Why he made the list:
Jess Lee is an investor at Sequoia Capital
Why she made the list:
Katie Hill heads the Clean Energy Program at Apple
Why she made the list:
Lydie Hudson is COO of Global Markets at Credit Suisse AG
Why he made the list:
Mike Moradi is the founder and CEO of Sensulin
Why he made the list:
Nili Gilbert is a cofounder of Matarin Capital
Why she made the list:
Rana El Kaliouby is the CEO and cofounder of Affectiva
Why she made the list:
Rebecca van Bergen founded Nest
Why she made the list:
Reihan Salam is a contributing editor and blogger at National Review
Why he made the list: "A
Richard Socher is chief scientist at Salesforce
Why he made the list:
Sam Kass is the founder of Trove
Why he made the list:
Samar Ali is an attorney at Bass Berry & Sims
Why she made the list:
Sarah Parcak is the director of GlobalXplorer
Why she made the list:
Navrina Singh is the director of business development at Microsoft
Why she made the list: