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Events on Sunday 1 January 2012 9
20122012: Sebastian VettelRed BullVettel won his third consecutive title in a dramatic season, fighting back from last place in the opening lap of the final race in Brazil to finish sixth and clinch the championship.
2012First Summit: DhaulagiriClimbed his first 8,000-metre peak, Dhaulagiri (8,167m), while still serving in the British military, igniting his passion for high-altitude mountaineering.
2012Gershwin PrizeTogether with Hal David, received the Library of Congress Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, the nation's highest honour for songwriters.
2012Ginni Rometty becomes CEO — first woman to lead IBMVirginia 'Ginni' Rometty succeeds Sam Palmisano as IBM CEO on 1 January 2012 — the first woman to lead IBM in its 100-year history. Rometty articulates a strategy around cloud, analytics, mobile, social and security — the 'strategic imperatives' that IBM believes will drive future growth. She faces the challenge of growing new businesses fast enough to offset the secular decline in IBM's legacy hardware and services revenue. IBM's revenues begin a remarkable 22-consecutive-quarter decline starting in 2012.
2012HelplessStarred in the mystery thriller Helpless, earning praise for portraying a man searching for his missing wife.
2012Louis Vuitton Collaboration and Global RetrospectivesCollaborated with Marc Jacobs on a line of Louis Vuitton products — leather goods, fashion, accessories and jewellery — covered in her signature dots, sold through pop-up shops worldwide. Major retrospectives opened at the Tate Modern in London and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in the same year.
2012 – 2014Memory Engrams and OptogeneticsHis lab at MIT's Picower Institute made landmark discoveries using optogenetics — controlling neurons with light — to identify and manipulate specific memory cells (engrams) in mouse brains. In 2013, his team created a false memory in a mouse, demonstrating for the first time that memories could be artificially implanted.
2012The HobbitAppeared as the Great Goblin in Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey.
2012 – 2018UK Special Boat ServiceSelected for the UK's elite Special Boat Service, one of only a handful of Gurkhas ever admitted. Trained in extreme environments and served on classified operations. Received an MBE for his military service.