The RS 100: Agents of Change : Rolling Stone

80 | Jack White

The new millennium's lead bluesman turns the world onto the old, good shit

WHAT HE'S CHANGING: As rock started to slip away from its roots, White launched a movement to bring it all back home, making bluesy, retro-rock sound ultramodern. Now it's safe for new bands — from Kings of Leon to Fleet Foxes — to admit they love the Stones, Dylan and Zep.

BUSY SCHEDULE: White has enough creative juice to fuel three fully functioning bands (the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and the just-announced Dead Weather).

KEY QUOTE: "I have three dads: my biological father, God and Bob Dylan."

SEE THE CHANGE: White Stripes' Official Site, The Raconteurs' Official Site and Dead Weather's Official Site

Photo: Dowling/Getty

79 | Neil Young

The last hippie who still makes a difference

WHAT HE'S CHANGING: The endlessly restless Young has taken on a surprising new project: transforming his '59 Lincoln convertible into a hybrid running on electricity and hydrogen.

SIGNATURE MOVE: His album, Fork in the Road, is all about the car, the LincVolt.

NEXT FIGHT: Winning the $10 million X PRIZE competition with the LincVolt.

KEY QUOTE: "When I see the huge amount of money the government has given to Ford and GM to research vehicles, and see what they have come up with — it just doesn't add up," Young told RS. "You don't have to have billions to be Ford."

SEE THE CHANGE: Neil Young's Official Site

Photo: Jennings/WireImage

78 | David Chang

The radical chef influencing everything from fast food to fine dining

WHAT HE'S CHANGING: With his growing Momofuku empire, the former religion student is revolutionizing haute cuisine — refusing to deal with phone reservations, white tablecloths or vegetarians. His decadent merger of French technique with Asian comfort food, plus insane amounts of pork, make him the Keith Richards of food.

WEAK SPOT: His temper. His business partner calls the holes he punches into his kitchen's walls "Korean termites."

CHANG ON HIS CLIENTELE: "I don't want shithead bankers and the friends of dickhead traders."

SEE THE CHANGE: Momofuku

Photo: Francesco Tonelli courtesy of Momofuku

77 | Shai Agassi

Who resurrected the electric car? Possibly this Silicon Valley visionary

WHAT HE'S CHANGING: The 40-year-old Israeli entrepreneur has attracted $200 million in first-round financing — the fifth-largest amount in history — for his company, dedicated to creating a "smart" network of electric-car-charging stations that do everything from charge cars when they're not being driven, to custom-program their radio stations.

FRIENDS SAY: "In our view," says venture capitalist Alan Salzman, "Shai is the path to the inevitable."

NEXT FIGHT: Israel, Denmark and California have already signed up; Agassi is in talks with at least 20 other countries.

SEE THE CHANGE: Better Place

Photo: Silverman/Getty

76 | Wafaa El-Sadr

The global-health visionary is fighting AIDS one family at a time

WHAT SHE'S CHANGING: An infectious-disease specialist, El-Sadr pioneered a model for the prevention, care and treatment of HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, centered on working with families and their social networks rather than just dispensing medicines. As director of the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs at Columbia University, she now oversees 600 sites in 14 countries in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.

FRIENDS SAY: "Wafaa is the closest I'll ever come to knowing a saint," says Donald Abrams of the University of California, San Francisco medical school.

SEE THE CHANGE: International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment

Photo: Kike Calvo

75 | Marc Jacobs

He's gone from fashion prodigy to Ralph Lauren-style empire builder

WHAT HE'S CHANGING: American (if not global) style. He may be a shameless attention magpie who bores easily, but he also has an exhaustive drive to rattle the conventions of fashion. His pitch-perfect ear for coolness and celebrity idolatry — did you think Lil' Kim could sell handbags? — lets him sell $30 boots to teens and still impress the chic-est critics.

FRIENDS SAY: "This guy's my idol," Kanye West told RS. "I want to be just like him."

KEY QUOTE: "When I was younger, all the kids I thought were cool smoked cigarettes, my favorite rock stars were heroin addicts — what looked cool was very dark."

SEE THE CHANGE: Marc Jacobs' Official Site

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Photo: Morigi/WireImage

74 | Bruce Nilles

The spearhead of the Sierra Club's efforts to stop new coal plants

WHAT HE'S CHANGING: The director of the Move Beyond Coal campaign, Nilles is Big Coal's worst nightmare: an aggressive, strategic lawyer who knows how to monkey-wrench the industry. Behind Nilles' efforts, the Sierra Club claims to have stopped plans for 24 new coal plants in the U.S. last year.

FRIENDS SAY: "Bruce is running the most successful campaign the environmental movement has seen in more than a decade," says Michael Brune, executive director of Rainforest Action Network.

KEY QUOTE: "There's no such thing as 'clean coal.'"

SEE THE CHANGE: Move Beyond Coal

Photo: Kira Stackhouse

73 | Cliff Bleszinski

Because video games need Michael Bay-style blockbusters too

WHAT HE'S CHANGING: As the head designer at Epic Games, Bleszinski shows a flair for ultraviolent shoot-'em-ups like Unreal Tournament and Gears of War that captivated gamers with its breakthrough realistic terror. GoW is now on tap as a feature — and possible franchise.

FRIENDS SAY: GamePro calls Bleszinski "the closest thing to a rock star the game industry has today."

ENEMIES SAY: "CliffyB is such a fag," posted one anonymous gamer online.

KEY QUOTE: "If I had a nickel for every time I was called a fag on the Internet, I could retire."

Photo: Miller/Getty

72 | Banksy

Outlaw street artist has become famous by remaining in hiding

WHAT HE'S CHANGING: Combining graffiti art with a culture-jamming sensibility — painting a hole on a West Bank security wall, illicitly hanging a "Mona Lisa" with a smiley face in the Louvre — the man who is reportedly named Robin or Robert Banks has made art dangerous again. He remains stubbornly anonymous despite his infamy.

FRIENDS SAY: "The streets are boring," artist Damien Hirst has said. "So anyone like Banksy who makes them entertaining and treats people like people instead of consumers is brilliant."

KEY QUOTE: "You know what hip-hop has done with the word 'nigger'? I'm trying to do that with the word 'vandalism': bring it back."

SEE THE CHANGE: Banksy's Official Site

Photo: AFP/Getty

71 | Craig Venter

The human-genome pioneer has plans for fuelmaking microorganisms

WHAT HE'S CHANGING: After sequencing his human genome and mapping the ocean's biodiversity, the relentless Venter continues to push the frontiers of science with his creation, from scratch, of the first synthetic genome.

NEXT MOVE: Designing organisms in the lab, including biological robots to produce chemicals and next-generation biofuels.

FRIENDS SAY: "Of course he's antagonistic," said Alfonso Romo Garza, the Mexican billionaire who invested $15 million in Venter's work. "But I love controversial people, because those are the people who change the world."

SEE THE CHANGE: J. Craig Venter Institute

Photo: Celotto/Getty

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