Directory

Step inside the TED Fellows community

Each year, a new group of TED Fellows from around the world, and from every discipline, are welcomed into this international community of remarkable thinkers and doers.

TED Fellows
2024 Cohort

TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Photojournalist, visual artist

Daro Sulakauri

Photojournalist Daro Sulakauri chronicles social and political issues in the Caucasus. By focusing on issues that are considered taboo, such as early marriages and the impact of Russian occupation, she defends against the erasure of Georgian culture, history and borders.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Equity bioengineer

Erika Moore

Biomedical engineer Erika Moore Taylor researches how ancestry and sociocultural data affect disease development. Unlike many researchers, she accounts for diverse populations when building regenerative tissue models to create more equitable disease models

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Visual artist, poverty researcher

Huiyi Lin

Huiyi Lin is an economic policy researcher and one-half of Chow and Lin, an artist duo using statistical, mathematical and computational techniques to address food insecurity and poverty. Chow and Lin combine research, design and photography to raise awareness about global inequality in visually arresting ways.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Medical mythbuster

Joel Bervell

Joel Bervell is a medical student educating people about health care disparities and biases through viral social media content. By sharing stories and studies with his audience of more than one million about the neglect of marginalized groups, he advocates for change in the health care system. 

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Ocean navigator

Lehua Kamalu

Lehua Kamalu is a captain and navigator of traditional Hawaiian ocean-voyaging canoes. She preserves and teaches these ancient sustainable navigation practices by integrating them into digital storytelling and daily life for future generations.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Health systems entrepreneur

Mohamed Aburawi

Mohamed Aburawi is a surgeon and founder of Speetar, a digital health platform reshaping health care in conflict zones across the Middle East and Africa, especially his native Libya. Through this work, Speetar is helping to dismantle barriers to quality care and advocate for health care as a fundamental human right.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Mechanical engineer

Norah Magero

Norah Magero is a mechanical engineer and creator of VacciBox, a cold chain solution saving lives in rural communities. She is working to build an Africa that manufactures and produces its own climate-health care technology.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Chemosensory researcher, nurse

Paule Joseph

Taste and smell researcher Paule Joseph explores how conditions such as COVID-19, obesity, neurodegenerative disorders and substance abuse affect the chemical senses. Her lab combines clinical research, behavioral neuroscience, genomics and molecular biology, offering insights on how taste and smell affect our daily lives.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

AI scientist, entrepreneur

Ramin Hasani

Ramin Hasani is cofounder and CEO of Liquid AI, where he helped invent liquid neural networks: a new AI technology inspired by living brains and physics. These revolutionary networks are more flexible and efficient than current AI solutions, shaping the future of machine learning and artificial intelligence research.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Wildland firefighter

Royal Ramey

Royal Ramey is the cofounder of the Forestry and Fire Recruitment Program (FFRP), a nonprofit providing career opportunities to formerly incarcerated firefighters in California. A 12-year wildland firefighter veteran, Ramey draws on his own lived experience, rethinking job training for the formerly incarcerated and addressing the challenges they face re-entering the workforce.

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TED Fellows 2024 Cohort

Composer, artistic director

Sahba Aminikia

Iranian-born composer, pianist and educator Sahba Aminikia is the founder and artistic director of Flying Carpet Children Festival, an annual mobile arts festival and artist residency for refugee children escaping conflict zones.

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2024
Cohort

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Fellows Directory

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TED Fellows 2019 Cohort

Police captain

Ivonne Roman
Ivonne Roman cofounded the 30x30 initiative to address the stagnation of women in policing. Currently, women make up only 12% of sworn officers and 3% of police leadership in the U.S. This under-representation of women in policing undermines public safety. Research shows women officers use less force and less excessive force; are named in fewer complaints and lawsuits; are perceived by communities as being more honest and compassionate; see better outcomes for crime victims, especially in sexual assault cases; and make fewer discretionary arrests. The 30×30 Initiative is a coalition of police leaders, researchers, and professional organizations who have joined together to advance the representation and experiences of women in policing agencies across the United States. Our ultimate goal is to increase the representation of women in police recruit classes to 30% by 2030, and to ensure police policies and culture intentionally support the success of qualified women officers throughout their careers. Participating agencies must address intersectionality in all efforts to improve the representation and experiences of women in policing. Intersectionality acknowledges the ways in which people’s multiple identities race and ethnicity, class, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ability, and more—magnify or transform their exposure to discrimination. This means the way race and discrimination is experienced is not the same for everyone. Women of color in particular will often face compounding experiences of bias and discrimination based not only on their gender, but also their race or ethnicity. Though 30×30 focuses on increasing the representation of women, it is critical that agencies apply an intersectional lens when analyzing their culture and practices to better promote the creation of a diverse and inclusive workplace for everyone Roman has 25 years of experience in policing, serving in ranks from police officer to chief of police. Her research interests include evidence-based policing, women in policing, and organizational legitimacy and procedural justice. Roman also enjoys writing. Her work has been featured in the Marshall Project and MarketWatch. As an advocate for evidence-based policing, Roman serves on the board of directors at the American Society of Evidence-Based Policing, and is an executive fellow at the National Police Foundation. She is a National Institute of Justice LEADS (Law Enforcement Advancing Data and Science) Scholar. She is a subject matter expert on recruitment and retention of women in policing.
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TED Fellows 2010 Cohort

Poet and recording artist

Iyeoka Ivie Okoawo
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TED Fellows 2020, 2011 Cohort

Designer, entrepreneur

Jae Rhim Lee
Jae Rhim Lee is an artist, designer, and entrepreneur whose work reimagines the mundane and the profound—eating and bodily waste, sleep, death, and consciousness. Her living units, furniture, wearables, and designed experiences propose new and often unorthodox relationships between the mind/body/self and the built and natural environment. She invented the Infinity Burial Suit ("Mushroom Death Suit”), an alternative burial method for people and pets. Her work has been featured in the National Geographic, the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum, the Nobel Prize Museum, Vogue, Somerset House London, Wired, and the Aspen Ideas Festival. She is a TED Senior Fellow.
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TED Fellows 2011 Cohort

Interaction designer

James Patten
James Patten is an interaction designer, inventor and visual artist working at the intersection of the physical and digital worlds. Patten is a TED fellow and the founder and principal of the design and engineering firm Patten Studio, where he creates new interactive experiences to help people connect with brands, places and each other.
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TED Fellows 2009, 2012 Cohort

Social entrepreneur

Jane Chen
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Coach/Facilitator/Educator

Jane Nordli
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TED Fellows 2014 Cohort

Molecular animator

Janet Iwasa
Janet Iwasa is an assistant professor in the Biochemistry Department at the University of Utah. Her broad goal is to create accurate and compelling molecular and cellular visualizations that will support research, learning and scientific communication. Janet's award-winning illustrations and animations have appeared in scientific journals including Nature, Science and Cell, as well as in the New York Times. Her work has also been featured on television and in museum exhibits. Janet was named a 2014 TED fellow, a 2017 TED Senior Fellow and recognized as one of the "100 Leading Global Thinkers" of 2014 by Foreign Policy magazine and one of the “100 Most Creative People” of 2012 by Fast Company magazine. As a postdoctoral fellow, she created a multimedia exhibit with Nobel Laureate Jack Szostak (Harvard University) and the Museum of Science, Boston, and later worked on biological visualizations as a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, San Francisco for her work on the actin cytoskeleton in the laboratory of Dyche Mullins, and completed 3D animation training at the Gnomon School of Visual Effects later that same summer.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Artist

Jasmeen Patheja
Jasmeen Patheja (born 1979) is an artist, activist based in Bangalore, India. People and interactions form the core of her work. She founded Blank Noise in 2003, a community of Action Sheroes/ Heroes / Theyroes ; citizens and individuals across India and beyond, united to eradicate sexual and gender based violence. Blank Noise was initiated in response to street harassment at a time when sexual violence in public spaces was viewed as a non issue. Over the sixteen years, she has designed a wide range of public participatory projects and interventions towards shifting public consciousness and building collective ownership of sexual and gender based violence. She is mobilising individuals, communities to end victim blame. Patheja’s practice is explores vulnerability, fear, empathy, trust, shame, and desire. All of Blank Noise is built on the lived experiences and insights of its Action Sheroes/ Theyroes/ Heroes. Select projects, at Blank Noise, conceptualised by Jasmeen include, I Never Ask For It ( 2004 - ongoing), Talk To Me (2012), Meet To Sleep (2014-ongoing). Patheja also collaborates with her grandmother, Inderjit Kaur on a series of photo performances. In 2015, she received the International Award For Public Art, towards the project Talk To Me (Blank Noise). She is a finalist for the Visible Award (2019) and was shortlisted for the Vera List Center for Arts and Politics. Her practice has received numerous media mentions including, The Atlantic, BBC, The Guardian. Recent exhibits include I Never Ask For It / Meet To Sleep Ford Foundation Gallery , New York (2019). Patheja serves on the advisory board of Fem Tech Net. She is currently an artist in residence at the Srishti Institute of Art Design and Technology.
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TED Fellows 2022 Cohort

Documentary filmmaker

Jawad Sharif
Jawad Sharif is an award-winning filmmaker who has come into prominence for exploring the often-ignored social subjects. His work focuses on the interface between the dominant culture and the real impact on people, society and the environment. Jawad is an alumnus of the the UCLA, Swedish Institute and Institut Fur Auslandsbeziehunge, Germany. Jawad is also the Festival Director of Asia Peace Film Festival and jury member of the Jaipur Library Academy Awards, India. He has worked on a number of socially and culturally sensitive film projects involving the themes of human rights and social injustice besides arts and culture. His feature film, “Indus Blues” has won the Grand Jury Prize at GIFF and has been nominated in several other international film festivals. He has also won several awards for his film, “K2 & the Invisible Footmen,” which has been screened in film festivals around the world.
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TED Fellows 2012 Cohort

Data researcher

Jean-Baptiste Michel
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TED Fellows 2015 Cohort

Astrophysicist

Jedidah Isler
I'm a thinker and a doer. I love people and I love helping people be their best selves. I'm particularly invested in helping people who seem not to "belong", who are stitching together their identity and their interests in ways that lead to their own freedom -- and often the freedom of those around them. You can catch me thinking about anything from the recent black hole photo (miss me with the "fuzzy" thing), how black holes can also be such efficient particle accelerators, creating an online community by/for women of color in STEM, what shoes I'm going to buy next, which (US) National Park Service stamp is closest to my next speaking gig, and/or which direction I'm going to point my twists (always counterclockwise). I've learned a lot so far and have a lot more to learn, so let's be bout that life! :)
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TED Fellows 2012 Cohort

Artist and educator

Jeffrey Gibson
Jeffrey Gibson lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He received a Visual Arts Grant from Creative Capital Foundation in 2005; the Eiteljorg Museum Fellowship in 2009; and a Percent for Art commission by the Department of Cultural Affairs in New York City in 2010. His work has been featured and reviewed in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Village Voice, The Boston, Globe, Art In America, ArtNews, Art Lies and The Brooklyn Rail. His work has recently been included in exhibitions at The Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Plug-In Institute of Contemporary Art; The Peabody Essex Museum; Participant Inc.; and will be included in upcoming exhibitions at The Museum of Art and Design; The National Academy Museum; The National Gallery of Canada, and Horton Gallery in Berlin. He is a 2012 TED Foundation Fellow.
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TED Fellows 2010 Cohort

CEO

Jen Indovina
Jen is a tech entrepreneur, lecturer, web series host, and TED Fellow, who is currently working to spread energy efficiency initiatives worldwide. Jen is the CEO and Co-Founder of Tenrehte, Inc. a clean tech company that produces wireless consumer electronics products. Tenrehte's first product, the PICOwatt Smart Plug received international recognition, winning the Best of CES Green Product Award. Jen is also a Visiting Lecturer at Rochester Institute of Technology in 3D Digital Design, a Co-Chair for the Science Ambassador Scholarship, and the host of a PBS-WXXI web series for kids called "I Can Be What?!".
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TED Fellows 2021 Cohort

Dermatologist

Jenna Lester
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Filmmaker

Jennifer Brea
I directed Unrest, a Sundance award-winning documentary film: http://unrest.film and am currently developing a few fiction projects. I also co-founded #MEAction, a global, grassroots organization to build community and help a population that is largely disabled, homebound, or bedbound to advocate more effectively. http://meaction.net. I became a filmmaker after becoming suddenly bedridden five years ago, while I was a graduate student in political economy and statistics at Harvard. I am passionate about film, storytelling, community organizing, and the internet as a powerful social space for the disabled; the intersections of health and the environment, health and women's rights, and health and human rights, and how the medical system can do better.
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Fellows Talks

We’ve organized Fellows talks into curated playlists to make it easier to find content you’re interested in.

TED Fellows impact at a glance

Change that gets noticed

200M

200M people impacted by Fellows work annually

451M

451M TED Talk views

2,234

2,234 articles published by/about Fellows per year

1,303

1,303 speaking engagements each year

234

234 businesses launched

The groundbreaking work of a TED Fellow does not stay in the shadows. Each year we study the impact Fellows have on their respective fields, as measured by tangible forms of recognition. Here are some highlights from the past few years.

Our purpose

What makes a TED Fellow?

TED Fellows are some of the brightest, most ambitious thinkers, future-shapers and culture-shakers from nearly every discipline and corner of the world.

Whether it’s discovering new galaxies, leading social movements or making waves in environmental conservation, with the support of TED, Fellows are dedicated to making the world a better place through their innovative work. In 2024 the program will shift to a nomination-based application process.

Qualifications

We look for the proximate emerging leaders working on-the-ground on world-changing ideas -- the doers, makers, inventors, technologists, filmmakers and photographers, musicians and artists, educators, scientists, entrepreneurs, nonprofit leaders, and human rights activists. Here is what we look for in a TED Fellow:

1

Emerging leaders. We focus our efforts on individuals who are in the earlier phases of their career, those who have a track record of excellence but have not received a numerous other fellowships and accolades. We search for those who are not already on the global stage.

2

Originality and authenticity. We look for proximate leaders with a unique approach to solving humanity’s greatest challenges. We look for the people working on-the-ground on world-changing ideas, putting ideas into action.

3

Kind, collaborative character. We look for individuals who have an early track record of great work in their field. We look for individuals from all disciplines, who have collaborative, kind personalities. Many Fellows claim that the community of other Fellows is the most valuable aspect of the fellowship. We try to nurture this collaborative spirit in the community.

4

Poised to grow. Since this is not a granting fellowship, we look for individuals who would best be able to use the TED community and this opportunity as a launching pad. The TED Fellowship is best for candidates who are prepared to grow with TED’s forms of support: amplification, network-building, communication training, professional development coaching and mentoring.