Spreading Knowledge and Expanding Knowledge

There's been a recent push within the Objectivist movement to direct efforts toward cultural change (OCON 2008 even had "cultural change" as its theme). While I do see the value and extreme importance in the quest to spread the ideas of Objectivism to an ever-wider audience, I'm personally much more interested in the other side of intellectual progress: expanding our knowledge further. Therefore, to the extent that this blog focuses on Objectivism qua movement, it will (mostly) focus on expansions of knowledge within philosophy, or expansions of knowledge outside of philosophy but reached through an Objectivist framework. To that end, I've come up with a list of people that I know of that are working on this aspect of progress. This list is by no means exhaustive and I'll gladly take suggestions for additions:

• Dr. Leonard Peikoff: This man is a giant. Even if we only count the work he's done since Miss Rand's death, his résumé is extremely impressive. Within the field of philosophy, he wrote the first systematic, in depth description of the entire philosophy of Objectivism, he developed the basis of the first workable theory of induction, and came up with a method of analyzing cultural trends in terms of their essential metaphysical and epistemological bases (the DIM hypothesis). In addition, he has done a lot of valuable work on the theory of education and on the development of rational thinking methods, including lectures on grammar, logic, communication, and thinking in general.
• Dr. Harry Binswanger: Much of Dr. Binswanger's work focuses around consciousness and science. He has multiple lectures on consciousness from both a metaphysical and scientific aspect, and has expanded the understanding of the nature of the subconscious through his work on psycho-epistemology and emotions. He is currently working on a book on consciousness, which I expect will integrate all of this work. He has also done some work on the philosophy of science, and wrote a book about the biological basis of concepts relating to goal-directed action (The Biological Basis of Teleological Concepts). Finally, he runs HBL, a moderated email list for those serious about Objectivism.
• David Harriman: He's essentially Professor Science, which makes him my hero. He worked with Dr. Peikoff on the initial presentation of his new theory of induction, and is currently working on making it into a book (The Inductive Method in Physics). He's done a lot of other work on the philosophy and history of science (though I disagree with some of his philosophical conclusions about space), and he's worked out a curriculum to rationally teach science in a way that leads to actual understanding, rather than memorized floating abstractions. He is also a part of the Falling Apple Science Institute.
• Lisa VanDamme: Miss VanDamme's work lies in the field of education, both on the theoretical side and the applied side. While she does have a few lectures and articles on the theory of education, her most impressive achievement to me is her school, The VanDamme Academy. I could type for hours about what I love about this school, but I'll let you go to the website and find out from the source.
• Scott Powell: Mr. Powell is the history teacher you wish you could have had. In addition to his blog where he applies historical context and principles to current events, he has immensely valuable resources avaliable both to help parents teach their children history properly (History at Our House) and a four-part series for adults who didn't get a proper history education in the first place (A First History for Adults).

Expect to see more about these folks in the future!