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

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

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TED Fellows 2012, 2011 Cohort

Sey Min
Sey Min is a multi-disciplinary interactive designer, who's interest is in dealing with live data sets in various media formats. She makes projects that reimagine how humans relate to technologies, to societies and cities, and to environments. Combining elements of environmentology, visual art, programming and storytelling, her projects range from building a real time interactive information graphics system for a music club(2007) to proposing a boundlessness open gallery exhibition system (2010). She also worked on developing ocean pollution cleaning system, especially oil spills effects to our lives and ecology. Recently, she has worked on the project of 'how to re-define city' with urban data. She is the founder and organizer of randomwalks.org(www.randomwalks.org), which is half profit/none-profit media art studio in korea. Her art works have been shown at Art Center in Seoul, Lift conference experience, and have appeared on CNN Asia, Lift09, and aliceOn.net. Sey Min received a M.F.A. in the interactive media from Pratt institute, 2004 and recently worked at MIT SENSEable City Lab, as an urban information design researcher.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Social entrepreneur, lawyer

Shaffi Mather
Shaffi Mather Lawyer, Entrepreneur & Policy Analyst Shaffi Mather is Lawyer and a serial Social Entrepreneur. He is the founder of Ambulance Access for All (Dial 1298 for Ambulance – an Emergency Response Ambulance Service), Education Access for All (Newton Schools and E-tutor Digital Learning Support) and co-promoter of Moksha Yug Access (Rural Supply Chain Organization). Shaffi practice Law (mainly in New Delhi, Mumbai and Cochin) focusing on litigation in Public Interest Matters especially battling for transparency in governance and use of public funds, human rights, civil rights and primacy of constitution. Shaffi is educated at the Mahatma Gandhi University, India, University of Pittsburgh, USA, University of Bridgeport, USA and the London School of Economics, UK where he was a Chevening Senior Scholar and currently, a Visiting Lecturer. He was also a Mason Fellow in Public Policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University in 2007-08 graduating with a MPA degree. Post his MBA, Shaffi took his family business in real estate to a leadership position in his State and then professionally worked with two of India's leading corporate leaders, Mr. Mukesh Ambani (Reliance Industries) and Mr. Subash Chandra (ZeeTV/Essel Group) in Retail and Telecom. He is part of an upcoming new generation of young leaders within Indian National Congress Party and an Asia Young Leader (Asia Society), Ted Fellow (TED), World Young Leader (BMW Foundation), Kenneth Galbraith Scholar (Harvard University), Member of Clinton Global Initiative (Clinton Foundation) and Winner of Godfrey Philips Bravery Award for Social Act of Courage. Shaffi has also beeen featured in case studies at Harvard Business School, University of Michigan Business School, Columbia University Business School and project studies at several leading business schools. He has also spoken at multiple international conferences and forums including World Justice Forum, Williamsburg Conference, Asian Young Leaders Summit, World Socialist Forum, Clinton Global Initiative etc.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

CEO, Teach For India

Shaheen Mistri
Shaheen Mistri is the Founder of the Akanksha Foundation, a non-profit organization with a mission to impact the lives of less privileged children, enabling them to maximise their potential and change their lives. Akanksha works primarily in the field of education, addressing non formal education through its Akanksha centre model and also formal education by initiating school reform. Shaheen started Akanksha at the age of 18. Over the past 19 years, the organization has expanded from 15 children in one centre in 1989 to over 3,500 children across Mumbai and Pune, and has 58 centers and 6 schools in Mumbai and Pune. Shaheen is also the CEO and one of the founding board members of Teach For India, a nationwide movement with the mission to build a movement of leaders who will eliminate inequity in education. She has been working on the idea of Teach For India since 2007, and in 2008 formally established the movement after successfully adapting the widely acclaimed Teach For America model to India. The first batch of 87 Teach For India Fellows (exceptional college graduates and young professionals from across the country) began teaching in June 2009, and committed to teach full-time for two years in under-resourced schools and to become life-long leaders, across sectors, advocating for educational equity. In just a year, Mistri has grown the movement to 217 Fellows teaching in over 60 schools in Mumbai and Pune and impacting the lives of almost 7000 children. Among the numerous rewards and recognitions she has received, Shaheen is an Ashoka Fellow (2001), Recipient of the Indo-American Society’s Young Achiever Award (2001), a Global Leader for Tomorrow at the World Economic Forum (2002), an Archana Trust Woman Achiever (2003), an Asia Society 21 Leader (2006) and serves on the boards of Ummeed, The Thermax Social Initiatives Foundation and is an advisor to the Latika Roy Foundation.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Founder

Shahida Saleem
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Shalini Kantayya
Filmmaker Shalini Kantayya’s, Coded Bias, premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival to critical acclaim. Coded Bias was broadcast nationally on PBS Emmy-award winning series Independent Lens and globally on Netflix in April 2021. The film won a SIMA Award for Best Director, and has been nominated for a Critics’ Choice, a Cinema Eye Honors, and NAACP Image Award, among others. Shalini’s debut feature, Catching the Sun, premiered at the LA Film Festival and was named a NY Times Critics’ Pick. Catching the Sun released globally on Netflix on Earth Day 2016 with Executive Producer Leonardo DiCaprio, and was nominated for the Environmental Media Association Award for Best Documentary. She directed the season finale of the National Geographic television series Breakthrough, Executive Produced by Ron Howard, broadcast globally in June 2017. She has also directed for NOVA and YouTube Originals. Shalini is a TED Fellow, a William J. Fulbright Scholar, and an Associate of the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. Her current film, TikTok, Boom, premiered at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival, was official selection at SXSW, and anticipates global release later this year.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Writer/Novelist

Shandana Minhas
Shandana Minhas’ first novel Tunnel Vision was published in 2007 by Roli Books and shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize. Her column Don’t Shoot the Messenger appears in The News on Sunday. Her novella Rafina is being adapted into a feature film by director Sabiha Sumar. Shandana’s first collection of poetry will be published in 2010 and she is currently working on her second novel. She also writes short film and documentary scripts. Her production credits include the film “Doctor” which she co-directed with Maheen Zia and the documentaries “Lyari Expressway: Development or Destruction” and “Gwadar: Between Golden Acres and the Deep Blue Sea.”
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TED Fellows 2011, 2010 Cohort

Director, journalist

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy
Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy is the only female director to have been awarded two Academy Awards by the age of 37. Since 2001, she has made over two dozen multi award films in over 16 countries around the world. Her films includeStudent Athlete, Girl in the river, Song of Lahore, Saving Face, Peace Keepers and Transgenders: Pakistan’s Open Secret. In 2012, Time Magazine included Sharmeen in their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. That same year the Pakistan Government awarded her with highest civil honor “Hilal -e–Imtiaz ”. In 2013, the Canadian government awarded her a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for her work in the field of documentary films and the World Economic Forum honored her with a Crystal Award at their annual summit in Davos. In 2017 the International Center for Journalists awarded her the Knight International Journalism Award for her work that led to legislative change. In 2017, Sharmeen was the first artist to co-chair the “World Economic Forum”at Davos. Sharmeen holds a Bachelors degree from Smith college and two masters degrees from Stanford University.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Visual Artist

Sharmistha Ray
I am a visual artist with numerous solo and group shows around the world under my belt. The recipient of notable awards including the Joan Mitchell MFA Grant (2005), TED Fellowship (2009) and Montblanc Young Artist World Patronage (2012), I have worked on special art projects with leading institutions and corporates like Berklee College of Music, The Godrej Group, JSW and Mahindra & Mahindra. I am also an occasional arts writer and founder of the Bellevue Salons, a mobile cross-cultural salon that aims to augment participatory modes of engagement with contemporary culture in surprising new ways. Since the Salons inception in 2014, I have collaborated with a diverse plethora of cultural practitioners making original and experimental work with a focus on social justice in the field of gender and sexuality. I seek to construct multiple visual representations of queer consciousness, drawing upon my Buddhist practice and the study of unified Vedic consciousness, as well as the intersectional lived experiences of being queer, gender-fluid and the product of multiple geographies. I have been featured in, written for or interviewed by the Indian editions of Vogue, Elle, Femina, Grazia, Conde Nast Traveler, Forbes Life and major daily publications such as Times of India, Mint, DNA, Midday, Hindustan Times and others. Reviews of my work have appeared in Art India and Take on Art magazines. Currently, I am working out of a studio at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York City. www.sharmistharay.com
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Director of Communications

Sheila Ochugboju
So, my meandering journey back to Africa started in a moment of clarity whilst working as a research scientist in Oxford, studying viruses for biopesticides. That was with support from a network of women scientists as The Daphne Jackson Trust Fellow at the Institute of Virology and Environmental Microbiology (IVEM), at St Hilda’s College, Oxford. Whilst on several missions across Africa to ostensively “empower and encourage” girls to pursue careers in science and technology. As it turned out, these young girls were actually teaching and encouraging me more than I had the capacity to give them. So I decided to return to the continent to contribute to the transformation that was already under way. In the interlude, I was training with the Department of Arts Media & Sports (DCMS) to become a Creative Agent, bridging the gap between Arts and Science to develop projects such as Impact DanceScience – funded by the Wellcome Trust, where epigenetics was expressed through dance (Bharatanatyam – South Asian Dance Form). In 2009, I finally found my way back To Africa, working for Think Tanks connecting researchers and policymakers in Ghana, Kenya and Nigeria on science, technology and economic transformation. In Kenya, in partnership with another TED Fellow Joshua Wanyama, we formed Africa Knows, a stock photography, knowledge management, and media consultancy. We also co-curate TEDxNairobi, the flagship TEDx event in Africa. In 2015, I was adopted by the government of Kisumu, Kenya, when I was appointed by as the Ambassador for Transformative Science & Urban Resilience. In 2017, I was received the Wings World Quest Women of Discovery Award for Humanity.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Arab sexuality expert

Shereen El Feki
Shereen El Feki is based in Cairo, where she works on issues related to health and social welfare in the Arab region. Half-Egyptian, half-Welsh, Shereen was brought up in Canada. She started her professional life in medical science, with a PhD in molecular immunology from the University of Cambridge. She later worked as Healthcare Correspondent at The Economist magazine, writing on biomedical research, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, international public health with a special focus on reproductive health and HIV/AIDS, biomedical ethics, intellectual property rights and development. In recent years, however, Shereen has re-oriented her career towards the Arab world. Before joining the American University in Cairo, she was a presenter/reporter with Al Jazeera (English). Shereen is a senior fellow of the 21st Century Trust-Salzburg Global Seminar, the International Science and Technology Practice and Policy Center at the University of Minnesota and the Royal Society for Arts and Manufactures (RSA). She is an advisor to Meedan, a Web initiative to promote dialogue between Arabic and non-Arabic speaking communities around the world. She is also a contributor to the Index of Islamic Innovation, a project which aims to map science and technology across member states of the OIC. Shereen holds a B.Sc. from the University of Toronto, as well as an M.Phil in biochemistry and a Ph.D in molecular immunology from the University of Cambridge.
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TED Fellows 2012 Cohort

Professor of Chemistry

Sheref Mansy
I grew up and studied in the US but somehow managed to spend the last 10 years living and working in Trento, Italy. My two wonderful children were born during this period in Italy. I just moved to Canada where I will continue my research on the origins of life at the University of Alberta.
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TED Fellows 2014 Cohort

Artist

Shih Chieh Huang
Taiwanese-born Shih Chieh Huang has exhibited his sculptures and installations at the 55th Venice Biennial Glasstress, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial Japan, Experimenta Biennial of Media Art Melbourne, Busan Biennial, Aichi Triennial Japan, 52nd Venice Biennial Taiwan Pavilion, Biennial Zero1 San Jose, Biennial Cuvée in Austria, the ARC Biennial Australia, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York and MOCA Shanghai. His solo exhibitions have been held at Smithsonian Institute National Museum of Natural History, Worcester Art Museum, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, RISD Museum of Art, Beall Center for Art and Technology and MOCA Taipei. Huang’s awards include an Artist Research Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institution, a TED 2014 fellow, a Creative Capital Grant, a Rockefeller Foundation New Media Arts Fellowship, a Joan Mitchell Foundation Sculpture Award, three New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowships and residencies at Art Omi, Skowhegan and The Marie Walsh Sharpe Art Foundation.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Shiladitya Sengupta
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

Shiva Keshavan
Olympian - 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 Asian Champion - 2011-12, 2012-13
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TED Fellows 2013 Cohort

Mobile finance entrepreneur

Shivani Siroya
I am a finance professional with a background in econometrics that is interested in uncovering the underpinnings behind financial markets and how risk is perceived. I am currently the CEO + Founder of Tala, a mobile technology and data science company that is working to deliver financial access, choice and control to underserved people around the world. Tala’s smartphone app instantly evaluates customers for credit using only the data on their devices and delivers customized loans in minutes. I started Tala to bring real-time data and human decisions to transform the financial services system. My path to Tala and solving this problem wasn't the traditional path. I began my career in investment banking doing equity research at UBS. I than moved on to working in microfinance in India and seeing first-hand how a microfinance portfolio is developed, implemented and the effects of micro-credit on borrowers. I went on to study econometrics and health economics - which I followed by working with UNFPA's lead economist developing costing models throughout Africa and Asia. While at UNFPA - I had the amazing opportunity to interview 4,500 borrowers in nine different countries - over the course of three years. I realized how large the credit gap was in emerging markets and how this was a double-sided problem that required real data to change the perception of how the unbanked is viewed by large institutions and society. I, then, did another short stint in investment banking doing M&A at Citigroup/HealthNet before starting InVenture in 2012 while I worked full-time. Since then Tala has been named by FastCompany as #1 Innovative company in Finance. Our company now works in East Africa and Southeast Asia. I'm also a TED Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute Finance Leader, WEF Young Global Leader and Ashoka Fellow. My education background is a MPH from Columbia University, which a specialization in econometrics and health economics. I also have a BA in economics and international relations from Wesleyan University.
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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.