Heros

David Deutsch

Philosophy - Introduced me to Karl Popper. Introduced concept of Explanation as a scientific concept and specific criteria to recognize it.
Physics - Introduced the Gate model of Quantum Computation as well as some early algorithms. Also uses good explanations to justify the Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics which is my preferred interpretation (at least its the only one that counts as an explanation to me).
Personality - He is a very calm character. He posts to twitter about contentious issues (e.g. Brexit, Israel & Gaza) and can remain logical even on what are clearly issues he is passionate about. Some have criticized him as being arrogant; I just think of him as confident in what he knows and desperately interested in hearing a logical argument about why he is wrong.