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.

Watch talk

Follow Daro Sulakauri

WebsiteInstagram
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

Watch talk

Follow Erika Moore

WebsiteInstagram
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.

Watch talk

Follow Huiyi Lin

WebsiteInstagram
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. 

Watch talk

Follow Joel Bervell

Instagram
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.

Watch talk

Follow Lehua Kamalu

Instagram
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.

Watch talk

Follow Mohamed Aburawi

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.

Watch talk

Follow Norah Magero

LinkedInWebsite
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.

Watch talk

Follow Paule Joseph

InstagramWebsite
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.

Watch talk

Follow Ramin Hasani

X (formerly Twitter)Website
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.

Watch talk

Follow Royal Ramey

WebsiteLinkedIn
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.

Watch talk

Follow Sahba Aminikia

InstagramWebsite
2024
Cohort

Showing 20 Fellows

Watch the new 2024 TED Fellows Films

go.ted.com/fellows24

Fellows Directory

A global community of over 500 remarkable individuals who are collaborating across disciplines to spark future-shaping change.

Clear
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.
TED Fellows 2017 Cohort

Reid Davenport
Reid Davenport has made five short documentaries that explore the perspective of people with disabilities. He received a Master of Fine Arts in Documentary Film & Video from Stanford University in 2016. As an undergraduate student at the George Washington University, Reid received the Luther Rice Collaborative Fellowship to travel to Western Europe and document the lack of physical accessibility for people with disabilities. Reid spent three weeks in Europe and produced a 28-minute documentary entitled "Wheelchair Diaries: One Step Up." His film awards include Best Short Documentary at the 2013 Awareness Film Festival (“Wheelchair Diaries”), the Artistic Visions Award at the 2016 Big Sky Documentary Festival (“A Cerebral Game”) and the Enerson Foundation Production Grant (“RAMPED UP”). He also co-founded an organization called Through My Lens, which teaches students with and without disabilities how to collaboratively make films. He hopes that this will lead to more narratives from the perspectives of people with disabilities.
Watch talk

Follow Reid Davenport

Website
TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Reshma Anand
Reshma is a business school graduate with over 20 years of extensive leadership experience in mission driven social impact ventures and non profit organizations. She crossed over successfully from a mainstream corporate career to work on market-based solutions to address India's development challenges. Reshma took on uncharted roles as she set up two impact start-ups : an accelerator for rural entrepreneurs in agriculture & hand crafts and an advisory firm to help non-profits and social entrepreneurs build resilient scale. Reshma's worked extensively with donors and has led several focused efforts to drive informed philanthropy in India through thought leadership and collaborative funding platforms. She is also an Aspen Fellow and anchors leadership programs for young professional women. Reshma's always ready for a road trip and has a bag packed to go at all times.
Watch talk

Follow Reshma Anand

TED Fellows 2010 Cohort

Artistic Director / Founder

Richard Move, Ph.D.
"His present is fascinating, his future ... limitless." - The New York Times Richard Move, PhD, MFA, is a TED Global Oxford Fellow, Artistic Director of MoveOpolis! and Assistant Arts Professor in the Department of Dance at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. Move's wide range of interdisciplinary commissions include productions for Mikhail Baryshnikov and the White Oak Dance Project, two works for the Martha Graham Dance Company, as well as creations for the European Capital of Culture/France, Guggenheim Museum/New York, Gardner Museum, Parrish Art Museum, Dame Shirley Bassey, New York City Ballet Principal, Heléne Alexopoulos and Astronaut - Artist, Dr. Sarah Jane Pell at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Move’s works as filmmaker include; Bardo - Jury Prize nominee at Lincoln Center’s Dance on Camera Festival; BloodWork - The Ana Mendieta Story - National Board of Review Award at Directors Guild of America; GhostLight - Tribeca Film Festival premiere, and GIMP - The Documentary, which premiered at the Lincoln Center Dance on Camera Festival. Martha@..., Move’s critically acclaimed performances of 20th Century icon, Martha Graham, received two New York Dance and Performance Awards (“Bessies”) and tours globally. MoveOpolis! has been presented by New York Live Arts, Dance Theater Workshop, The Kitchen, Sitelines/River to River Festival, Jacobs Pillow Dance Festival and on tour internationally. Move’s esteemed collaborators include designers Alba Clemente, Patricia Field and Isaac Mizrahi, visual artist Charles Atlas, author Hilton Als and Deborah Harry of Blondie. Move’s recent publications include chapters for the Oxford Handbook of Dance and Reenactment, Ally: Janine Antoni, Anna Halprin and Stephen Petronio, and Rhythm Field - The Dance of Molissa Fenley. In 2018, Move was appointed Artist in Residence at Pratt Institute and at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. Prior to joining the faculty at New York University, Move served as Assistant Professor of Dance at CUNY/Queens College and as Lecturer in Design and MFA Thesis Advisor at Yale University’s School of Drama. Move earned their PhD, MPhil, and MA in Performance Studies at New York University, after earning their MFA in Media Arts Production from CUNY/The City College of New York, and their BFA in Dance from Virginia Commonwealth University. Please visit www.move-itproductions.com
Watch talk

Follow Richard Move, Ph.D.

Move-ItProductions.comLinkedInFacebook
TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

CEO

Rikin Gandhi
At Digital Green, Rikin works to empower smallholder farmers globally -- with a focus in India and Ethiopia -- to lift themselves out of poverty by harnessing technology and grassroots partnerships. He received his education in computer science and aeronautical engineering. The impetus for Digital Green began with Microsoft Research India’s Technology for Emerging Markets Team, where Rikin worked before founding the organization he now leads in 2006.
Watch talk

Follow Rikin Gandhi

LoopDigital Green
TED Fellows 2010, 2011 Cohort

Violinist

Robert Gupta
Robert Vijay Gupta is an Indian-American violinist and musical activist, and a 2011 TED Senior Fellow. At 24, Gupta is currently the youngest member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, and directs Street Symphony, a non-profit organization bringing free music performances to mentally ill individuals living within homelessness and incarceration. Gupta has performed as a soloist and recitalist around the world since the age of 8, but obtained an undergraduate in Biology at 17 and a Master's in Music from Yale at 19, after working in several neuroscience laboratories studying Parkinson's Disease and neurodegenerative biology.
Watch talk
TED Fellows 2017 Cohort

Urban refugee expert

Robert Hakiza
Robert HAKIZA is a Congolese living in Uganda as a refugee since 2008. He holds a degree in Agriculture from the Catholic University of Bukavu (DRC). In 2015 he attended the International Summer School of forced migration of Oxford University. He is a Co-founder and Executive Director of the Young African Refugees for Integral Development (YARID) a refugee-led organization which empowers refugees and builds community. He is also a founding member of the Refugee-Led Organization Network. He is a steering committee member of the Global Refugee-Led Network. He worked as an Assistant Researcher respectively with the Humanitarian Innovation Project (HIP) of Oxford University, the International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED) and Toronto University. He is a refugee Advocate. He has a big experience working with urban refugees and also works to educate others about obstacles refugees face. He is a TED Fellow and Aspen New Voices Fellow 2017.
Watch talk
TED Fellows 2022 Cohort

Roboticist

Robert Katzschmann
Robert Katzschmann is Assistant Professor of Robotics and head of ETH's Soft Robotics Lab. His research group advances robots' abilities for real-life applications by being more compliant and adapt better to their environment when solving challenging tasks in locomotion and object manipulation. His group takes inspiration from living creatures and develops soft robots with deformable properties that achieve functions not possible with traditional robots. The Soft Robotics Lab advances the design, fabrication, modeling, control, and learning techniques tailored to the needs of soft robotic systems. Demonstrations of his robot's capabilities are real-world applications such as a robotic fish for underwater locomotion, soft robotic hands for pick-and-place tasks, and multi-segment arms for dynamic object manipulation. Robert's work has appeared in leading academic journals, including Science Robotics, and has been featured in major news outlets, including the New York Times. Robert is a member of the ETH AI Center, the Max Planck ETH Center for Learning Systems (CLS), and the ETH Competence Center for Materials and Processes (MaP). Robert is an Area Chair for Robotics Science and Systems (RSS), an associate editor for IROS, and a guest editor for the International Journal on Robotics Research (IJRR), and a reviewer for leading peer-reviewed journals, including Science and Nature
Watch talk
TED Fellows 2014 Cohort

Astronomer + web developer

Robert Simpson
Watch talk
TED Fellows 2020 Cohort

Civil rights entrepreneur

Rohan Pavuluri
Rohan Pavuluri is the CEO and co-founder of Upsolve, a nonprofit that empowers low-income families to overcome financial hardship and access their legal rights, using technology, education, and community. To date, Upsolve has relieved nearly $500M in debt for low-income families. Upsolve funders include Jack Dorsey, Jim Breyer, Chris Sacca, Y Combinator, Eric Schmidt, the Robin Hood Foundation, Vinod Khosla, Gaurav Kapadia, and the U.S. Government. Pavuluri was named to the TIME100 Next list in 2021. He is also a member of the Emerging Leaders Council of the Legal Services Corporation, which gives out $400 million each year, and a Board Director of the National Center for Access to Justice. Pavuluri graduated from Harvard College, concentrating in Statistics.
Watch talk

Follow Rohan Pavuluri

UpsolveTwitterLinkedIn
TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Doctor

Rohini Rau
Internal Medicine / Functional Medicine Doctor Asian Sailing Gold Medallist TED Fellow Dr Rohini Rau is India’s former top woman sailor. Her best World ISAF Ranking was 94 and 5th in Asia. She created history by winning India's first international gold medal by a women's youth team at the Asian Sailing Championship in 2004. She has participated in 9 World Championships, winning 6 international medals and 32 National Medals including 8 Consecutive National titles in the Laser Radial. She campaigned for the 2012 Olympic Games. She completed her medical degree (MBBS) at Chengalpet Govt Medical College and her MSc Internal Medicine (University of Edinburgh). She worked as a Senior Resident Doctor at Kauvery Hospital, Chennai, India since 2015-2020. She is now a certified Functional Medicine Practitioner (AFMCP) by Institute of Functional Medicine, USA 2021 and also pursuing a diploma in Ayurveda. She is the Outgoing Curator of the Chennai Hub Global Shapers Community ( an initiative of the World Economic Forum ) and a 2009 TED Fellow. She has worked as a health researcher with the National Geographic Okavango Wilder- ness Project 2016. She was in Angola for 3 weeks for a Health survey assessment. She serves as part of the Global Shapers Alumni Advisory Council since 2018. Rohini is India’s first Medical Clown and trainer. She has worked with The Little Theatre’s Hospital Clowns Troupe since 2015. In 2018 she was a Facilitator for 4 International Design Thinking projects in Ethiopia, Nepal, Singapore and Kenya. She is an International motivational speaker (TED, TEDx, WEF, TiECON, Yi conferences). She has acted on stage since the age of 5 and been part of numerous musical theatre productions since then. She is a trustee of The Little Theatre - a 28 year old not-for-profit Children’s theatre organisation and has been involved in most of their productions. She is a lyricist and has been part of International productions operating the light and sound. She has learnt Bharatnatyam, Jazz Ballet, Tap and Salsa dancing. She plays the piano and the violin. Has acted in numerous stage shows and an Italian feature film ‘Gills’ age 12. She has sung playback for a Tamil film ‘Three Roses’. After 7 years, Rohini made a comeback into competitive sailing - forming an All Women’s sailing team to represent India at the J/80 World Championship in Bilbao, Spain 12 - 20 July 2019. Team YATRA placed 4th in the Women’s Category. In March 2020 she was selected as one of the international delegates at the Global Victoria Business Summit 2020 and as an AIYD 2022 Emerging Leader in Melbourne, Australia. She is the COO of a fitness start up MONDAY MONK. That brings holistic fitness to the common man by focussing on Functional Medicine, mental health along with spiritual health, emotional, physical health and well-being
Watch talk

Follow Rohini Rau

Rohini RauIsportFacebook
TED Fellows 2018 Cohort

Humanitarian aid entrepreneur

Rola Hallam
Dr Rola Hallam bio Name: Rola Hallam Title(s) & affiliation(s): Dr, CEO & Founder, CanDo Short bio: Rola is a consultant anaesthetist, humanitarian, human rights advocate and social entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of CanDo, a not-for-profit social enterprise delivering resources directly to local humanitarians who provide essential healthcare to their war-devastated communities. She played an integral part in building 7 hospitals in the north of the Syria, including the world's first crowdfunded hospital. She is an international speaker and advocate for the cessation of targeting of civilians and children in war zones, and the protection of medical neutrality. Rola is also the first Syrian TED Fellow.
Watch talk

Follow Rola Hallam

CanDo@CanDoAction
TED Fellows 2018 Cohort

Environmental entrepreneur

Romain Lacombe
Romain Lacombe is the CEO and founder of Plume Labs, an environmental tech company building a mesh network of personal sensors for environmental health. Flow, it’s first hardware product, is a CES Innovation Awards 2017 honoree. Plume Labs has raised $4M in seed funding and has a team of 20+ in Paris, France and New York, NY. From 2011 to 2014, Romain was the co-founder and head of innovation of data.gouv.fr, the French Prime Minister’s task force for open government and open data. Romain graduated from Ecole Polytechnique, Paris (Applied Maths, Physics and Economics, 2006) and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.S. in Technology Policy, 2008) as a Fulbright Scholar. Romain is an MIT Technology Review ‘Innovator Under 35’ (2015) and a TED Fellow (2018) and his work was covered in Time, CNN, The New York Times and The Economist.
Watch talk

Follow Romain Lacombe

Company@rlacombe
TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Associate Professor of Computer Science

Rommel Feria
Born and raised in the Philippines. Educated in the Philippines and the UK. Member of various international professional organizations. Faculty member of the University of the Philippines. Educator. Computer Scientist. Son. Brother. Husband. Father. Friend. Mentor. Life-long learner.
Watch talk

Follow Rommel Feria

JEDI@rom
TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Founder and CEO

Rose Shuman
Founder of Question Box - www.questionbox.org Recently featured by the World Economic Forum in their report, Data-Driven Development, Question Boxes are public call boxes that link marginalized populations to the information and service linkages they need. Question Boxes also help programs generate longitudinal data about needs in communities. The Question Box team works as a technical support to existing development and humanitarian response programs. Example current program partnerships include: – A partnership with an HIV hospital in India. Question Boxes link high-risk pregnant women with a counseling hotline and 30 community outreach workers, covering a catchment area of 500,000 people. – A partnership with a motorcycle ambulance service in Uganda. Public call boxes allow critical cases to access the single motorcycle emergency transport available in the entire district, as the nearest hospital is 40 miles away. - A partnership with the national Ebola hotline of Sierra Leone. Question Boxes in rural areas allow isolated communities to access information, services, and provide feedback about ground conditions. Founder of BrightFront Group www.brightfrontgroup.com BrightFront Group is a consultancy specializing in the intersection of international development and technology - particularly data, innovation & ICTD program initiatives. We work with government, international institutions, non-profits, technology companies, and multinational corporations. We are familiar with the Americas, Southeast Asia, India, China & English-speaking African countries. BrightFront is operationally focused and takes a balanced approach, recognizing that Technology functionality, effective Operations processes, and strong Partnerships are all essential components for positive project outcomes. We understand the perspective of both technologist and non-technologist stakeholders. BrightFront is experienced in the following sectors: Health, Emergency, Education, Financial Inclusion, Entrepreneurship & Economic Development, and Agriculture.
Watch talk
TED Fellows 2010, 2009 Cohort

Founder

Roshini Thinakaran
A National Geographic Emerging Explorer and TED Global Fellow, Roshini's work for the past six years has focused on researching and documenting the lives of women living in conflict and post-conflict zones including Iraq, Liberia, Lebanon and Afghanistan. She established Women at the Forefront in 2005, a multimedia project to examine the impact of war on women and marginalized communities. She has been interviewed by CNN, Fox 5 News and featured in more than half a dozen US and international publications including, National Geographic Magazine, TIME, Newsweek and US News and World Report. In 2010, Roshini and her work will be part of a National Geographic publishing project promoting literacy among adolescent children. Also this year, Women at the Forefront will be partnering with Dickinson University and Point Pedro to launch a scholarship program for women in warzones.
Watch talk

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.