Since 1999, the editors of Technology Review have honored the young innovators whose inventions and research we find most exciting; today that collection is the TR35, a list of technologists and scientists, all under the age of 35. Their work--spanning medicine, computing, communications, electronics, nanotechnology, and more--is changing our world.

http://www.technologyreview.com/TR35/?Year=2006&Channel=All

2006 Innovator of the Year: Joshua Schachter
2006 Humanitarian of the Year: Christina Galitsky

I am more interested in the work of Nikos Paragios who has accomplished a milestone in the field of computer vision i.e image processing.