We rank the Mile High City's most influential powerbrokers in our primer on who's running Denver.
39. Tom Cech/Leslie Leinwand
Directors, Colorado Initiative in Molecular Biology
Behind Leinwand and Cech, the latter of whom won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1989, this interdisciplinary research center at CU-Boulder is developing a more collaborative environment for scientific and medical discovery. First opened in 2003, CIMB eventually will house more than 20 laboratories for departments including mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, and others. By promoting "productive collisions" between disciplines, CIMB has already enabled breakthroughs in cancer screening and tissue engineering to reduce the need for hip and knee replacements, and in 2010 the center will work with CU's Leeds School of Business to develop biotechnology-focused entrepreneurial programs.