Boston’s best people and ideas of 2011 - Pictures

Photograph by Matthew J. Lee/Globe staff

ADRIAN GONZALEZ In a season punctuated by the failures of the Red Sox’s off-season additions, Gonzalez prevailed. There were slight stumbles, sure – Gonzalez started off the second half two for 24 and hit only one homer between July 8 and August 22. But he said the right things along the way and finished the season with 117 runs batted in (third-highest in the American League) and a .338 average (the team’s best since Manny Ramirez hit .349 nearly a decade ago). All of this earned him enough good will to land him the highest of Sox honors: a Dunkin’ Donuts commercial.

photograph by Lance Hayashida via The New York Times/file

ARTIFICIAL LEAF This year, MIT chemistry professor Daniel Nocera and his team made Mother Nature look lazy. Their “artificial leaf” – a credit card-size device that splits water into hydrogen and oxygen when exposed to sunlight – is 10 times more efficient than the real thing. Researchers are developing the technology as a potential solution for energy-starved areas in the developing world, predicting that just a gallon of water a day could provide enough hydrogen and oxygen to feed a fuel cell capable of powering an entire home.

COMMUNITY-SUPPORTED ART Looking for a way to contribute to your local economy without having to deal with all that kale? Taking a cue from the Community Supported Agriculture model, the Cambridge Center for Adult Education’s new CSArt program brought together emerging and mid-career artists with local arts patrons. This year, 50 people paid $300 for a CSArt share, which entitled them each to nine unique works of art – and, like a traditional CSA, you get what you get. This year’s pilot program was based on one in Minnesota, with cities like Chicago, Nashville, and Peterborough, New Hampshire, now following suit. (By the way, you should still eat all your kale). 617-547-6789, www.ccae.org

photograph by david l. ryan/globe staff/file

DAVID MCCULLOUGH You could be forgiven for assuming that McCullough, the country’s preeminent historical writer, was already living here, the country’s preeminent historical city. But it was only this year that the longtime Martha’s Vineyard resident moved to the Back Bay. McCullough – who twice won both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award and has written about American icons from John Adams to the Brooklyn Bridge – is, of course, an expert on the Boston of yore. But the 78-year-old admits it’s the future more than the past that drew him and his wife to the city: Fourteen of their grandkids live in this area.

photograph by aram boghosian/file

FASHION TRUCKS If 2010 was the year of the Boston food truck, 2011 was the year our fashion went mobile. Former Henri Bendel merchandiser Emily Benson created The Fashion Truck, a glam boutique on wheels loaded with trendy fashions and accessories such as headbands and clutches. Everything in the truck is priced under $100. She parks outside colleges, businesses, outdoor markets, and private parties, and this month is in front of the old Borders in Downtown Crossing. In the meantime, Emerson senior Derrick Cheung and pal Howard Travis sell cool sneakers and locally designed streetwear apparel in Boston and Harvard Square from their lime Green Street Vault truck. The two guys, whose business plan scored top honors at Emerson’s Entrepreneurial Studies Program expo, post their truck’s location on Twitter and Facebook. www.thefashiontruck.com; www.greenstreetvault.com

photograph by david l. ryan/globe staff/file

ERIN MORGENSTERN The tale itself – a magical love story set in a traveling circus open only after dark – was not entirely out-of-realm for a former Salem resident obsessed with fantasy and fairy tales. But talented thirtysomething Morgenstern also had a knack for timing. She released her debut novel, “The Night Circus,” just when readers and publishing execs, mourning the end of the Harry Potter series and growing a bit bored with vampires, needed it most. Since the novel’s September release, it spent some two months on “TheNew York Times” bestseller list and had its rights snatched up by more than 30 foreign publishers and the producers behind the “Twilight” movies. “The sound you are hearing,” Morgenstern writes on her website, “is my head spinning, still.”

photograph by josh reynolds/file

REBOOTING “THE BAFFLER” When local historian John Summers, who has taught at Boston College and Harvard, announced last spring that he had bought the rights to “The Baffler” and was preparing to revive it, there was much rejoicing among fans of the take-no-prisoners criticism that the left-wing journal was known for during its 1990s heyday. Before it went semi-dormant – there have only been two issues since 2003 – “The Baffler’s” critiques of business and culture served as an antidote to the excess and optimism typical of boom times (see memorable takedowns of “Wired,” “The New York Times” Styles section, and the music industry). As Summers and his new staff prepare the first of 15 issues that will be published over the next five years through MIT Press, expect ferocious takes on Wall Street, Congress, and the Obama administration, all delivered with the bite of freshly sharpened teeth.

photograph by jacquelyn martin/associated press/file

LOBSANG SANGAY When the Dalai Lama announced this year that he’d be stepping down from his role as the political leader of the Tibetan people, Medford would have seemed an odd place to find his replacement. And, yet, that was exactly where voters found Sangay, a research fellow at Harvard Law School, and elected him in April to head the Tibetan government in exile in Dharamsala, India. (The Dalai Lama remains the spiritual leader.) Sangay, the first Tibetan to earn a Harvard Law degree, took office in August and now faces the difficult task of holding together a diaspora while keeping the cause of Tibetan autonomy from withering in public consciousness as the Dalai Lama retreats from public view.

photograph by blake j. discher/file

THOMAS WILKINS There’s this moment Wilkins has been trying to re-create for years: He’s in third grade in Norfolk, Virginia, and a symphony – the first he’s ever seen – is just starting to play. “At that moment, I knew I was in this different world,” he has said. Providing kids with that same experience became his life’s work and an ambition he’s bringing to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, where he’s now leading youth and family concerts (and where he’s also making a bit of history as the BSO’s first black conductor). At once gregarious and inspiring, Wilkins is a burst of fresh energy at graying Symphony Hall. He’s got the same music on his iPod that your kids have on theirs and chomps Snickers during concert intermissions. In other words, your grandfather’s conductor he is not. And thank goodness for that. www.bso.org