The White House recently recognized 13 individuals as “Champions of Change” for Open Science: people who worked to make data public for the greater good:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/champions/open-science

One of the thirteen was Princeton University’s Jeremiah P. Ostriker, recognized for his role in the development of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. This recognition reflected SDSS’ record of making its data public to the world, enabling the writing of literally thousands of papers. The ceremony, which took place on June 20 in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, adjacent to the White House, included an open discussion among the 13 Champions, as well as talks by John Holdren (Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy) and Todd Park (Chief Technology Officer of the United States). Prof. Ostriker invited five guests to take part in the ceremony. The visiting group is shown here left-to-right starting from the upper left: Michael Strauss (former SDSS spokesperson), Al Sinisgalli (who was key in arranging Princeton’s financial support of the project), Don York (SDSS’ first director), Ostriker, Jill Knapp (scientist par excellence who kept the project going through sheer force of will) and Jim Gunn (SDSS Project Scientist).

(Image Credit: Anjelika Deogirikar)