The best ones live on in time immemorial it seems - Feynman comes to mind. I should also add Walter Lewin to the list for bringing teaching alive (http://ocw.m

The best ones live on in time immemorial it seems - Feynman comes to mind. I should also add Walter Lewin to the list for bringing teaching alive (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-and-MagnetismSpring2002/CourseHome/ http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-and-Magnet...) I don't see why practitioners can't be good teachers really? I had the great pleasure of chatting with Dr. Dennis Liotta (he made the breakthrough HIV drug that more than 95% of HIV patients in the U.S use) the other day and boy can that man teach. I walked out learning not just about chemistry, but also but drug discovery, economics of scale in the developing world, ethical way of making wealth, etc all the while he was teaching. Perhaps, the better teachers excite, not educate. For the excitement itself is the highest form of education.