Neil Turok, another 2008 TED Prize winner, is a standout in a world of stars.

One of the godfathers of the "open inflation" theory of the universe, the cosmologist has been shaking up the scientific establishment.

In a recent book, Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang, Turok and co-author Paul Steinhardt challenge the widely accepted theory that the cosmos—and time itself—began with a gigantic explosion 14 billion years ago. Our world, they say, is not unique but merely part of a continuum of universes, created when different dimensions collide, expanding and then collapsing in trillion-year cycles.

But organizers say Turok deserves a TED Prize because of how much he cares about this world and all that he is doing to make it a better place. A hemisphere away from Cambridge University, where Turok holds the chair of mathematical physics, he also has been working toward cultivating young scientists in Africa.

In 2003, Turok founded the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Cape Town, South Africa. It is a nine-month, postgraduate academy that helps promising students from all over the continent to prepare for Ph.D. programs and careers in research. The faculty includes math and science luminaries, many of whom Turok personally recruited to be guest lecturers and mentors.

"Neil Turok is one of the world's leading physicists. He could easily just spend all his time in his lab, preparing to win a Nobel Prize. But he hasn't done that," said TED curator Chris Anderson. "He's in Africa, where science education is in a pretty shoddy state, and he has decided to do something about it. He's absolutely brilliant, and he's taken that brilliance and leveraged that in a surprising way to help other people."

See Portfolio.com's full coverage of the 2008 TED Conference.