Chomsky

I believe I don't have to ask if you heard about Noam Chomsky.
Everyone who is interested in linguistics heard/read about Chomsky at least once. For ignorants, so those who don't know the man, here's the photograph:

 

Well, Noam Chomsky  was born in 1928, on  the 7th of December, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, so in 9 days he celebrates his 85th bithday!

Why is he so important? 

He is called "father of modern linguistics" and he authored more than 100 books. According to the most reliable source, Wikipedia ;), "his work has influenced fields such as artificial intelligence, cognitive science, computer science, logic, mathematics, music theory and analysis, political science, programming language theory and psychology.". He's also an activist, below you can find some short films with his lectures: