People to Know: Fall 2026 Lecture Series and Nobel Prize Edition

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards reviewing key political leaders, legal figures, and 2026 Nobel Prize laureates from the Fall 2026 People to Know series.

Zohran Mamdani

A $34$-year-old Democratic Socialists of America member and former New York state legislator who became the mayor of New York City on January 1, $2026$. He is NYC's first Muslim mayor, first Asian American mayor, and youngest mayor in more than a century, running on a platform of free buses, city-run grocery stores, and rent freezes.

Kash Patel

The FBI Director appointed in February $2025$ who previously hosted a podcast criticizing a 'deep state.' His tenure saw the departure of over $1{,}100$ special agents, the firing of staff investigating Iranian threats prior to the $2026$ U.S. strikes on Iran, and the reassignment of up to nearly half of some field offices to immigration enforcement.

Mike Johnson

A constitutional lawyer from Louisiana who became Speaker of the House in October $2023$. He repeatedly recessed the House early—including on September 16, $2026$—to prevent votes on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files and impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, leaving key defense, farm, and surveillance bills unpassed.

Thomas Massie

A Republican representative and MIT-trained engineer from Kentucky known for breaking party lines on spending and foreign policy. Pushing for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files led to a primary challenge backed by President Trump, causing him to lose his May $2026$ primary by nearly $10$ points.

Gloria Steinem

A prominent feminist leader, journalist, and co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus and Ms. magazine ($1972$) who advocated for the Equal Rights Amendment across six decades. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in $2013$ and died on September 2, $2026$, at age $92$.

Alfred Nobel

The Swedish inventor of dynamite ($1867$) who bequeathed the majority of his fortune to establish the Nobel Prizes after a French newspaper mistakenly published his premature obituary in $1888$ labeling him a 'merchant of death.' The first prizes were awarded in $1901$.

Karl Deisseroth

A Stanford psychiatrist and bioengineer who co-won the $2026$ Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for pioneering optogenetics, which uses light-sensitive green algae proteins to control specific brain cells with light.

Optogenetics

A biological technique that inserts light-gated ion channels from green algae into neurons, allowing researchers to activate or deactivate targeted brain circuits using light to study behavior and neurological disorders.

Francis Halzen

An $82$-year-old Belgian-born physicist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who won the $2026$ Nobel Prize in Physics for conceiving and developing IceCube, a telescope buried up to $2{,}500\text{ meters}$ in Antarctic ice to detect cosmic neutrinos.

IceCube

A particle observatory embedded in Antarctic ice equipped with thousands of optical sensors that record faint flashes of blue light generated when high-energy neutrinos collide with atoms, aiding research into the origins of cosmic rays.

Anne Carson

A Canadian poet, essayist, and classicist awarded the $2026$ Nobel Prize in Literature for inventing hybrid literary forms that blend ancient Greek myth with contemporary narrative, seen in works such as Autobiography of Red and The Beauty of the Husband.

Henri Kagan

A French chemist at Paris-Saclay who shared the $2026$ Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Kenso Soai for developing asymmetric synthesis reactions that selectively produce one enantiomer ('handedness') of a chiral molecule over another to synthesize safer pharmaceuticals.

Navi Pillay

A South African jurist and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights who won the $2026$ Nobel Peace Prize. Her judicial career includes defending anti-apartheid leaders, serving on the ICTR where rape was recognized as a crime of genocide, and heading a UN inquiry on Gaza.

Robert Hall

A Stanford economist who shared the $2026$ Nobel Prize in Economics with Michael Woodford for research on macroeconomic expectations, demonstrating how anticipations of future conditions drive consumer spending, business pricing, and central bank policy.

Karen Bass

The first female Mayor of Los Angeles, elected after serving as Speaker of the California Assembly and in Congress. While homicides dropped $19\%$ in $2025$, her administration faced criticism when official counts showed street homelessness increased by $7.9\%$ to $29{,}115$ individuals.

Inside Safe

Mayor Karen Bass's signature Los Angeles homelessness initiative aimed at moving unhoused residents indoors, which faced public scrutiny after reports revealed that approximately $40\%$ of participants returned to unsheltered street living.

Nithya Raman

An urban planner and Los Angeles City Council member running against Karen Bass in the $2026$ mayoral race. Supported by the Democratic Socialists of America, her campaign highlighted a $49\%$ decrease in street homelessness within her council district.

Abdul El-Sayed

A physician, former Rhodes Scholar, and public health official who won the $2026$ Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Michigan with $48.5\%$ of the vote, running on progressive platforms including Medicare for All and abolishing ICE.

Rob Bonta

The first Filipino American Attorney General of California. After repeatedly litigating against the Trump administration and leading a multistate antitrust suit to block the merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, he agreed to a settlement allowing the deal to close in October $2026$.

David Ellison

The CEO of Paramount and son of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison who completed a high-profile media acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery on October 6, $2026$, bringing CBS, CNN, HBO, and Warner Bros. under his control.

Michael Kotlikoff

The president of Cornell University and former veterinary provost whose administration faced an alumni lawsuit in September $2026$ alleging institutional mishandling and cover-up of an alleged Chi Phi fraternity gang rape that occurred in October $2024$.

Ken Paxton

The Texas Attorney General and $2026$ Republican nominee for U.S. Senate who survived a $2015$ felony securities fraud indictment, a $2023$ state impeachment trial, whistleblower retaliation judgments totaling $\$6.6\text{ million}$, and mortgage fraud inquiries.

James Talarico

A seminary student, former teacher, and Texas state representative who became the $2026$ Democratic nominee challenging Ken Paxton for the U.S. Senate, focusing on capping insulin costs, funding public schools, and reducing the influence of billionaire donors.

Young Kim

A Republican U.S. Representative from California first elected in $2020$. Following redistricting under California's Proposition 50, she was forced into an intra-party incumbent contest against Ken Calvert while navigating ethics scrutiny regarding undisclosed foreign travel.

Ken Calvert

A long-serving Republican congressman from Corona, California, in office since $1993$, who chairs the House Defense Appropriations subcommittee and faced scrutiny from watchdog groups regarding $\$16\text{ million}$ in earmarks directed near his personal commercial properties.

Proposition 50 (California)

A California ballot initiative approved by $64\%$ of voters in November $2025$ that redrew the state's congressional map to favor Democrats by up to five seats, prompting redistricting changes that pitted Republican incumbents Young Kim and Ken Calvert against each other.