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Dr. Aomawa Shields is an Astronomer and Astrobiologist in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UCLA and at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. She was awarded an NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellowship and a UC President’s Postdoctoral Program Fellowship beginning Fall 2014 to study the possible climates of potentially habitable worlds discovered around low-mass stars. Aomawa received her Ph.D. in Astronomy and Astrobiology from the University of Washington in 2014, and a Sc.B. in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences from MIT in 1997. She worked in support of the Spitzer Space Telescope as a member of its Science User Support and Observation Planning and Scheduling Teams from 2005 to 2009. Aomawa is also a classically trained Actor and Violinist, receiving her MFA in Acting from UCLA in 2001. She appeared in the film Nine Lives, directed by Rodrigo Garcia, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and was one of Ebert and Roeper’s “Top Ten Films of 2005”. She co-hosted the PBS TV show Wired Science, and has appeared on The History Channel’s Universe, and The Discovery Channel’s SciTrek series. She published an essay "Universe: The Sequel" in the anthology "She's Such a Geek: Women Write About Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff" (Seal Press 2006), and the poem "Nefertiti with a Calculator" in the literary journal "Bricolage" (2011). Aomawa uses her theater background to communicate science to the public in engaging, innovative ways. She is deeply committed to the mentorship and empowerment of people traditionally underrepresented in the sciences. Her NSF postdoctoral fellowship supported the development of an interactive astronomy workshop for young middle-school girls of color, which she will conduct with girls in Los Angeles, CA and Cambridge, MA this year. For information on bringing these workshop activities to a community near you, visit http://www.risingstargirls.org .

Aparna Rao (1978, India) is a part of the artistic duo Pors & Rao, since 2004. This is a multi-disciplinary art practice involving mechanical and electronic engineering, programming and manufacturing processes. In 2009 they began to show their works at Expanded Box section at ARCO Madrid, Spain; Indian Highway curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist, Julia Peyton-Jones and Gunnar Kvaran at the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Norway; and at the 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, curated by Raiji Kuroda, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum, Japan. Since then the duo has focused on developing new works. Applied Fiction is their first-ever solo exhibition and after being exhibited in New Delhi it will travel to Centro de Arte Caja de Burgos, Spain, in May 2011. Pors & Rao have also been recently awarded a commission from the Metamatic Research Initiative, an Amsterdam-based non-profit organization to realize their longstanding interactive installation Nisse TV.

Aparna Wilder is the Co-Founder and COO of IRL Labs. She has over 10 years experience leading education and community development initiatives. Aparna works closely with teachers, students, and research assistants to integrate immersive technology into education interventions and specialized curriculum. Aparna also serves as the Associate Director of Student Programs and Outreach at the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the University of Pennsylvania.

A. Karen Baptiste, a national of The Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and Fulbright Scholar, completed her Ph.D. in Environmental and Natural Resource Policy from State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry in 2008. She graduated from the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine, Trinidad with a B.Sc. in Chemistry and Management in 2002 and a M.Sc. in Environmental Management in 2004. Her research interests are in environmental justice, environmental psychology, livelihoods analysis, the rural poor and oil and gas studies. Her current research looks at the intersection between environmental psychology and environmental justice in an attempt to understand the factors that shape environmental actions and environmentalism within the Caribbean region. Having recently completed a Ford Foundation Post-doctoral Fellow in the African American Studies Department at Syracuse University, she is now an Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies at Colgate University.

Apurv Mishra is a TED Fellow, deep tech entrepreneur and a cross-disciplinary expert in Machine Learning, Data Privacy and Cryptography. He recently Co-Founded Beskar Inc. where he is developing next generation Data Anonymization and Security Systems as the Chief Technology Officer. Over the past 14 years, Apurv has successfully built multiple ventures and holds several patents in the space. His contributions have wide-ranging impact: • Served as an emerging technologies council member at the World Economic Forum, Scientific American. • Advised governments including the Parliament of Japan and the Government of the United Arab Emirates. • Driven innovation at Deutsche Telekom, Jaguar Land Rover, ARM, Microsoft Research and BMW. In 2016, Apurv became the Chief Technology Officer of doc.ai (acquired by Sharecare) and soon to be publicly traded digital health company. Anthem has partnered with doc.ai with a $100 million contract to use the platform and portfolio of privacy-first technologies and artificial intelligence software service. He is also the former Chief Operating Officer of Datawallet, a leading data privacy compliance platform. Raised over $41 Million USD backed by Tim Draper and Marc Benioff (CEO of Salesforce). He has been the youngest member of the World Economic Forum - Global Agenda Meta-Council on Emerging Technologies 2014 - 2016 and Member of the World Economic Forum - Global Agenda Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, 2014-2016. He holds a Masters in Technology Policy from University of Cambridge - Department of Engineering. He invented 'Glabenator' aged 14 years, in response to his grandfather's paralysis. This invention won the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair Grand Award 2006 (Engineering) at Indianapolis, President of India's National Technology Award 2006 and Lecture during Nobel Prize Ceremony 2009 at Stockholm (as Nobel Foundation's Seaborg SIYSS Fellow).

TED Fellow 2017. Global Viral Visiting Scientist. Research Scientist at the Center of Astrobiology in Madrid in Spain. Working with NASA to send a greenhouse to the Moon and Mars. Will attempt the first genetic engineering of plants in space. Former Scientific Advisor of the Chilean Senate. Former Director of the Department of Astrobiology of the AngelicvM Institute of Space Research.

Arunraj Subbaraj is the founder of Ashwa Mobility , an organization which designs,fabricates and tests vehicle prototypes in the brand Ashwa Racing . Ashwa Racing develops single seater race cars in 3 different technology platforms Combustion,Hybrid and Electric extending to Vehicle mobility for Land , Air ,Sea and Space

I am a marine biologist currently working with blue whales in the Northern Indian Ocean.I am trying to stop them getting hit and killed by large container ships.For this I do science, outreach and push for policy changes and also look for innovative tools that can help solve conservation problems of this nature. I am also an advocate of contextualising conservation, particularly in the marine realm. Making sure people know why we need to protect the oceans and how healthy oceans means healthy us. I work with the media and do public talks to create this awareness and because I believe, the more people know, the more they care and the more responsible they feel to do something. Check www.ashadevos.com to learn more about my work!

Ashish recently graduated as the class valedictorian from Sunset High School in Portland, Oregon. He is currently a freshman in the Jerome Fisher M&T program at the University of Pennsylvania. His interests span from engineering and math to history and policy. In ninth grade he visited many rural areas in India with his father on a social service trip. There he noticed extensive lack of access to potable water and energy. He has conducted two research projects on appropriate technologies involving water and energy. One was on efficient microbial fuel cells that convert wastewater into clean water and electricity. The other project was cost-effectively harvesting energy from the sun using novel “water lenses.” Some of his recent awards include the First Place Grand Award at the International Science and Engineering Fair 2009, the 2009 International BioGENEious Award, the MIT Think Award, and the Stockholm Junior Water Prize in 2008 and 2009. In the future, he plans to continue research on sustainable water and energy technologies.

While scientists and conservationists are working to save many species, I believe that all global citizens are equally powerful in helping save wildlife and the planet's natural resources. During my Master's and Ph.D. studies in wildlife conservation, I realized that anyone, with or without a degree or qualification, has a license to save the world from extinction. My work focuses on applying interdisciplinary approaches for the conservation of endangered species and their habitats. Inspired by the potential of community-based conservation, I started the Fishing Cat Conservancy in 2014 to help empower local communities to protect the endangered fishing cat and its globally important mangrove habitat in their backyards.

Ashwin Naik is a an entrepreneur/advisor with interests in healthcare delivery, social enterprise and tech enabled health startups. Ashwin is the Founder of Vaatsalya Healthcare, an award winning social enterprise, which was the first network of hospitals focused exclusively on Tier II and Tier III towns in India. Vaatsalya has been recognised globally as winner of the Inaugural Porter Prize in India for value based healthcare, the Most Innovative Healthcare Company by VCCircle in 2014 and India’s top 10 innovative companies by Fast Company in 2013 among many other recognitions. He is passionate about healthcare access and is now deeply engaged in building a right to primary health movement around the world. He is also a Resident Fellow and part of the Leadership Group at Ashoka, a pioneering network of social entrepreneurs worldwide. In addition he co-founded & chairs the National Association of Social Enterprises, India. To support health startups, he also leads DisruptHealth a health focussed ecosystem enabler based in Bangalore and is actively involved in the sector as an advisor and angel investor. Ashwin is a trained physician and has written and spoken about leadership, entrepreneurship, rural health and social entrepreneurship at various forums around the world, including World Health Congress, NHS Alliance, Ashoka Future Forum, Global Philanthropy Forum, and Africa Health summit (KPMG). Ashwin has been recognized as a Economic Times Leaders under 40, Young Global Leader (YGL) 2012 By World Economic Forum, Young Leader by Asia Society Asia21 in 2011, Senior Ashoka Fellow in 2010, Finalist for the India Social Entrepreneur of the Year Award 2010 by Schwab Foundation, Ted India fellow for 2009. Dare Magazine India in its April 2011 edition profiled Ashwin as 50 inspiring Entrepreneurs of India. Ashwin has a medical degree from Karnatak Medical College, Hubli and a Masters from University of Houston, Texas. Previously, he was the Vice President of Business Development and Informatics at Triesta Sciences, a clinical genomics company. Ashwin has been part of the human and mouse genome projects at Celera Genomics. He was instrumental in coordinating multidisciplinary teams to compile and analyze human and mouse genomes, leading to two publications in the journal Science. He holds three patents and has contributed a book chapter on Origin of Life.

BIOGRAPHY Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck Roll Back Malaria Partnership Executive Director and Former Minister of Health of the Republic of Senegal Professor Awa Marie Coll-Seck is Executive Director of the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership. RBM is a global partnership founded in 1998 by WHO, UNDP, UNICEF and the World Bank, with the goal of halving the world's malaria burden by 2010. Prior to this appointment, Awa Marie Coll-Seck was Minister of Health of the Republic of Senegal (2001-2003). As Minister of Health, she initiated far-reaching reform of the health sector in Senegal and engaged a wide range of government, civil society and private sector partners in the implementation and expansion of public health programmes. She mobilized strong political commitment within her country for health to be rightly recognized as key to economic and social development, and she successfully mobilized financial resources both domestically and from bilateral and multilateral international donors. From 1996 to 2001, Awa Marie Coll-Seck served as a Director at the Joint United Nations Programme for HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Utilizing her skills and experience in policy formulation and scientific research, Awa Marie Coll-Seck led the Department of Policy, Strategy and Research, the largest department within UNAIDS consisting of a diverse group of physicians, nurses, researchers, and other international policy and technical experts "best practice" guidance to assist governments and civil society in mounting their national and community responses to the global AIDS epidemic. Awa Marie Coll-Seck was subsequently named Director of the UNAIDS Department of Country and Regional Support, where she coordinated and mobilized the UN system response to the epidemic while supervising UNAIDS staff serving at four regional offices and at country-level offices throughout Africa, Asia, Eastern and Central Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Born in 1951 in Dakar, Senegal, Awa Marie Coll-Seck has been awarded numerous professional and academic honours, including the Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite de la République Francaise, Chevalier des Palmes Académiques Francaises, Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite Sénégalais and Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite du Burkina Faso. She was elected as chairperson of Commission B of the 2002 World Health Assembly and as President of the Assembly of the Ministries of Health of the West African Health Organization (WAHO, 2002-2003) and is currently a member of the prestigious Academy of Sciences and Technologies of Senegal. After earning a degree in medicine in 1978 from the University of Dakar, she served for nearly twenty years as a specialist in infectious diseases in leading hospitals in Dakar, Senegal and Lyon, France. In 1989, she was appointed Professor of Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of Dakar and Chief of Service for Infectious Diseases at the University Hospital in Dakar. Awa Marie Coll-Seck is the author of over 150 scientific publications and communications on diverse subjects - including malaria, measles, meningitis, tetanus, typhoid, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and cardio-vascular diseases - is a member of over 20 professional societies and organizations, and is fluent in French, English and her native Wolof, with a working knowledge of Spanish. In addition to her distinguished professional and academic career, Awa Marie Coll-Seck is married and the mother of four children.