Harold McGee writes about the chemistry of foods and cooking. He studied science at Caltech and and literature at Yale, where he also taught, and in 1984 published the first edition of his prize-winning reference book On Food & Cooking: The Science & Lore of the Kitchen. In 2008, Time Magazine named him to its annual list of the world's most influential people. He has published original research in Nature and Physics Today, written many articles for magazines and newspapers, including a long-running monthly column for the New York Times, and since 2011 has been a visiting lecturer at Harvard University. He lives in San Francisco.

Photo credit: Elli Sekine