This year Beliefnet’s Most Inspiring Person Award goes to Dr. Liviu Librescu. This Romanian-born, Israeli-American scientist and educator was an engineering professor at Virginia Tech, before a gunman, student Seung-Hui Cho, killed him–and 31 others–during a shooting spree at the school last April. A Holocaust survivor, Librescu had barricaded the door of his classroom with his body and told his students to jump out of windows when he saw Cho was trying to make his way in. Because of his actions, all but one of his students survived the attack. Beliefnet readers overwhelmingly voted for Librescu, amazed by his heroic actions that fateful day.

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