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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TED Fellows 2012 Cohort

Archaeological geneticist

Christina Warinner
Christina (Tina) Warinner is a Sally Starling Seaver Assistant Professor at the Radcliffe Institute and an assistant professor of anthropology in the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She is also a group leader in the Department of Archaeogenetics at the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and professor of biological sciences at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. Warinner specializes in biomolecular archaeology, with an emphasis on reconstructing the prehistory of human foods and the evolution of the microbiome. She is known for her pioneering work in ancient DNA and proteins research, which has contributed significant insights into prehistoric human health, ancestral human oral and gut microbiota, the origins of dairying, and past human migrations. She is a 2014 US National Academy of Sciences Kavli Fellow and a 2012 TED Fellow, and her TED Talks on ancient dental calculus and the evolution of the human diet have been viewed more than 2 million times. In addition to her research, she is actively engaged in public outreach and created the Adventures in Archaeological Science coloring book, now available in eighteen languages, including many indigenous and underrepresented languages. Warinner received her MA and PhD at Harvard University and completed her postdoctoral training at the Centre for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zürich, Switzerland and the University of Oklahoma. She was previously a presidential research professor and assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma and visiting associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark.
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TED Fellows 2012 Cohort

Director, Designer, Inventor

Christine Marie
Christine Marie is a creator of installations, performances and experiences. She seamlessly integrates performers, objects and special effects to elicit connections with concepts, phenomenology and history in emotional and visually stimulating experiences. Christine Marie strives to break new ground within her form while being intrinsically tied to ancient art forms and the metaphysical exploration of light. She is pioneering the use of large-scale 3D shadows by reinventing the stereoscope and casting up to 4’ shadows into cubic space. Her work has appeared at the REDCAT, the Geffen Playhouse, Southcoast Repertory, Z Space, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, the Exploratorium, Pop-Up Magazine, Sundance New Frontier and others and has received support from the Jim Henson Foundation, MAP fund, the Zellerbach family foundation, the Paul Dresher Residency, Intersection for the Arts, Cal Arts Center for New Performance and others. Christine Marie received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in Integrated Media, Puppetry and Theater. Christine Marie is a TED Fellow. Engaging The Unknown, TED talk. Marie has taught shadow animation at Pixar and DreamWorks studios. She studied Wayang Kulit traditional shadow puppetry in Bali and is a former 15-year member of ShadowLight theater, the company has twice won the UNIMA Citation for Excellence award, international puppetry's highest honor. She lectures and conducts workshops at universities, schools and at juvenile hall. She has worked with shadows for decades and has a life-long commitment to continuing working with light. She is currently creating a series of light toys. Her latest work, (antiquated) Augmented Reality was the first-ever non-digital, non-film official selection at the Sundance Film festival in 2019 at the Egyptian Theater.
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TED Fellows 2013 Cohort

Sound artist, composer

Christine Sun Kim
Christine Sun Kim is an artist based in New York and Berlin. She uses the medium of sound through technology, performance, and drawing to investigate and rationalize her relationship with sound and spoken languages.
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TED Fellows 2017 Cohort

Serial entrepreneur

Christopher Ategeka
Chris is an award-winning serial-entrepreneur, engineer, and a futurist. He is the founder/ CEO at UCOT Inc. [www.helloucot.com], an innovation studio exclusively for startups solving unintended consequences of technology. UCOT supports entrepreneurs to create and launch new companies solving problems at the intersection of technology and humanity. Chris also founded UCOT FORUM a conference whose main objective is to have authentic discussions around exponential technology development and usage, that may not be serving humanity's best interests. Before that, he founded Hourglass ventures a fund that supports visionary entrepreneurs from the African continent who come from the underprivileged background- and need a Friends and Family round of financing to get their ideas off the ground. He also founded the Health Access Corps, a social enterprise that works to establish sustainable health care systems on the African continent. Chris has been invited to speak at some of the world’s most prestigious platforms such as TED, Clinton Global Initiative and United Nations. He has won many international awards for his work, most recently 2016 World Economic Forum Young Global Leader; TEDFellow; Forbes Magazine 30Under30, Ashoka fellow and Echoing Green fellow. Chris' work has been featured in many major media publications both locally and Internationally such as BBC, Forbes, and NPR. Chris holds a Bachelor’s of Science, and Master’s of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He also completed an intensive executive program on Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century, at John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.
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TED Fellows 2012 Cohort

Privacy researcher and activist

Christopher Soghoian
Dubbed the “Ralph Nader for the Internet Age” by Wired and “the most prominent of a new breed of activist technology researchers” by the Economist, Christopher Soghoian works at the intersection of technology, law, and policy. A leading expert on privacy, surveillance, and information security, Soghoian is currently a TechCongress Fellow, working for Senator Ron Wyden. Prior to that, he was the Principal Technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union. A TED Senior Fellow, Soghoian has been named a top innovator under 35 by the MIT Technology Review, and was an Open Society Foundations Fellow. Soghoian completed his Ph.D. at Indiana University in 2012, which focused on the role that Internet and telephone companies play in enabling government surveillance of their customers.
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TED Fellows 2018 Cohort

Marine mammal veterinarian

Claire Simeone
Dr. Claire Simeone is a conservation leader, working fearlessly to heal the animals and ecosystems of our planet. A veterinarian by training, Claire specializes in working with marine mammals, studying the connections between animal health, ocean health, and our own health. Claire believes that the largest challenges of our lifetime will be solved with a returning to listening what the natural world has to share. Claire founded Sea Change Health to safeguard ocean health, and all who rely on it. Prior to founding Sea Change Health, Claire directed the Hawaiian Monk Seal Conservation Program at The Marine Mammal Center, the world’s largest marine mammal hospital, and has worked with NOAA-National Marine Fisheries Service and the National Marine Mammal Foundation. Claire is a 2018 TED Fellow. Please reach out and say hello!
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TED Fellows 2022 Cohort

Criminal justice technology entrepreneur

Clementine Jacoby
Clementine Jacoby is the CEO of Recidiviz — a nonprofit engineering team working to help criminal justice agencies reduce incarceration in ways that are safe and equitable. Previously, Clementine was a Product Manager at Google, where she worked on Google Maps and Android. She has been named in Forbes 30 Under 30, Fast Company’s Most Creative People, and TIME’s Next 100 Most Influential People, and is OYW’s Entrepreneur of the Year. She holds a B.S. in Symbolic Systems from Stanford University. Most importantly, though (!), Clem is a 2022 TED Fellow.
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TED Fellows 2009, 2010 Cohort

Socio Ecological Artist, TED Fellow

Colleen Flanigan
Colleen Flanigan is a socio-ecological artist. Through visual, performing, and biological arts, she investigates contemporary issues of species endangerment and ecosystem regeneration, specifically coral reefs. Her work encompasses Living Sea Sculptures to restore devastated coral reefs, conversation-catalyzing alter egos, participatory multimedia exhibitions, VR, and more. She is a recipient of a TED fellowship for 2009, and SR TED Fellowship 2010.
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TED Fellows 2014, 2019 Cohort

Artist

Constance Hockaday
Constance Hockaday is a queer Chilean American who grew up on the Southern tip of Texas. She is a powerhouse in organizational transformation. With her unique background in socially engaged art and conflict resolution strategies, she uses participatory design tools to align growing companies around their mission, vision, and organizational culture. She will surprise, challenge, and shake up the place in ways that disrupt entrenched cultural patterns getting in the way of organizational effectiveness and business results. In another dimension, Hockaday works as an artist creating immersive art pieces that confront issues surrounding public space, political voice, and belonging. Currently she is creating Disaster Furniture Showroom, a project that responds to our most intimate ideas about disaster and the future. The project questions how safety, preparedness, and disaster capitalism manifest in the social consciousness. Are we heroes in our fantasies about the future? What motivates people to prepare for the future? How does this fear contribute or impede our ability to take action against climate change and structural violence.
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TED Fellows 2009 Cohort

High-altitude archeologist, TEDGlobal 2009 Fellow

Constanza Ceruti
Constanza Ceruti was born in Buenos Aires in 1973 (January, 11th). She lives in the city of Salta, in Northwest Argentina. After her graduation as an Anthropologist at University of Buenos Aires in 1996, she earned her Ph.D. at University of Cuyo (Mendoza, Argentina) in 2001. She has become a specialist in the field of high altitude archaeology, studying Inca ceremonial centers on the summits of Andean mountains. She is Scientific Investigator of the National Council for the Scientific Research (CONICET) in Argentina, a Professor of Inca Archaeology at Catholic University of Salta and the Director of the Institute of High Mountain Research at the same University. She is the only female Andean high-altitude archaeologist in the world. Dr. Ceruti has climbed over 100 mountains above 16,500 feet, (5000 meters) within the context of systematic archaeological research. She has been twice on top of Aconcagua (6.962 m.) – the highest mountain in the western hemisphere- , and on the summit of Mt. Pissis (6.882 m.) – the highest volcano in the world-, as well as on several other peaks in Ecuador, Bolivia, Peru, Chile and Argentina. She is the author of more than seventy scientific publications, including six books. Dr. Ceruti participated as project co-director in four of Dr. Johan Reinhard´s archaeological expeditions in 1999 and 2000, funded by the National Geographic Society. On the summit of volcano. Llullaillaco (22,100 feet) - the site of the highest archaeological work ever undertaken – Reinhard and Ceruti discovered three of the best preserved mummies in the world, together with several gold and silver statues and sumptuary objects of typical Inca style. Her academic achievements have been recognized by the University of Buenos Aires with the Gold Medal. Her mountaineering achievements have been recognized with the Gold Condor (the most important award by the National Army of Argentina, for the first time given to a woman). In 2005 she became an Emerging Explorer of the National Geographic Society. In 2006 she was among the few honorees at the Prince of Asturias Award Ceremony, when the Communication and Humanities Award was given to the National Geographic Society. In 2007 she received the Courage Award from the Wings Worldquest and she was honored as a Distinguished Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of West Georgia. Her interest in sacred mountains and anthropology goes beyond the vast Andean mountain range: she has been to the Nepal Himalayas, India, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Greenland, Norway, England, Australia, Polinesia, United States, Italy, France, Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. She has been invited to lecture at dozens of universities and museums in the Americas and Europe. She is a fellow of Wings Worldquest, the Explorer´s Club and TED2009.
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TED Fellows 2021 Cohort

Electric aviation entrepreneur

Cory Combs
Cory is an electric aviation entrepreneur and investor passionate about sustainable, practical innovation. He is Co-founder and Executive Tech Fellow at Ampaire, a startup that is leading the charge in electrifying aviation. Ampaire is the convergence of Cory's work designing X-planes, EVs, and clean technology. Cory was named a 2019 Emerson Collective Dial Fellow, 2021 ICAS Aerospace Innovation Prize Awardee, and has received global recognition for his pioneering work in electric aircraft.
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TED Fellows 2015 Cohort

Physical therapy entrepreneur

Cosmin Mihaiu
CEO and co-founder of MIRA Rehab, developing a software platform that engages patients in interactive and therapeutic games, making physical rehabilitation fun. Cosmin's primary focus is establishing collaborations with UK and US medical institutions, persuading them that playing video-games can support therapists when treating their patients. Cosmin broke his arm when he was 7 years old and it took him a long time to recover due to how boring and difficult he found the therapy exercises. When his mother developed frozen shoulder, she barely exercised as well. In order to recover completely, patients need to be actively engaged in their therapy, but they find physical therapy boring, cumbersome and lengthy. Cosmin started working on MIRA in 2011 alongside three University colleagues. In 2012, they founded the company MIRA Rehab in UK, being invited in the Healthbox Europe Accelerator in London. Coming from Romania to a place they barely knew, the team had a difficult time maturing their student project into a business. However, they soon realized perseverance is one key thing to grow a business. At the end of the 3 months Healthbox program, the company received the Innovation Award, "the most innovative solution to an industry challenge". Since then, MIRA Rehab has grown and established important collaborations with major institutions, all while receiving several honors and awards. Achievements: • Imagine Cup by Microsoft, NYC, USA – Top 6 countries in the World, (Jul. ‘11) • Healthbox Europe Accelerator and Innovation Award, London, UK (Oct. ’12 & Jan. ‘13) • Kairos 50 - “One of the top 50 most innovative student-run businesses in the World”, NYC, USA • Forbes, Romania Special Edition "30 under 30" (Mar. ’13) • Tech.eu -”One of the top 35 healthcare start-ups to watch in Europe” (Jun. ’14) • The Journal of mHealth (Nov. ’14) - Digital Health 100 Award – MIRA Rehab as one of the top 100 Digital Health companies in the world • Founders Grid (Jan. '15) - MIRA Rehab in 50 London Startups You Absolutely Must Know About While in University, Cosmin was also part of the Microsoft Student Partner Program. This is a worldwide educational program with 2,800 members that provides technical expertise, offers leadership roles, and encourages relationships with University faculty. In just one year from entering the MSP Program, Cosmin became Technical Lead of the Microsoft Student Partners program in his University. His duties involved organizing tech seminars for students every other weekend, presenting Microsoft's technologies to students and making sure he had a broad knowledge of all Microsoft's technologies. Education: - Master of Science in Software Engineering (September 2014) - "Babeș-Bolyai" University, Romania - Double-Major Bachelor of Science in Information Engineering (June 2012) - "Babeș-Bolyai" University, Romania - Double-Major Bachelor's Degree in International Business (Feb 2012) - "Babeș-Bolyai" University, Romania
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TED Fellows 2013 Cohort

Artist

Cyrus Kabiru
I am a visual artist currently practicing in Nairobi, Kenya. I am a self taught painter and sculptor. My paintings are often humorous portrayals of contemporary living within Kenya. I adopt the role of a flâneur, the observer, explorer, and lounger using my paintings as the output for my experiences. My sculptural work embodies my role as a “collector” of Nairobi cast offs. I fashion and refashion these waste, recycled, and found materials into various forms. Currently I is focusing on a series that depicts African nature using thousands of bottle caps sewn together. I am perhaps best known for my C-STUNNERS, an ongoing work which I create and wear artistic bifocals. The work sits itself between fashion, wearable art, performance, and one of a kind commodity objects. The C-STUNNERS have a certain energy and playfulness that really captures the sensibility and attitude of a youth generation in Nairobi. They portray the aspiration of popular culture bling; they reflect the ingenuity and resourcefulness of people; the lenses provide a new filter giving a fresh perspective onto the world that we live in transforming the wearer not only in appearance but in mind frame as well.
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TED Fellows 2010 Cohort

Designer

DK Osseo-Asare
DK Osseo-Asare is a designer who makes buildings, landscapes, cities, objects and digital tools. He is assistant professor of architecture and engineering design at Penn State University, where he runs the Humanitarian Materials Lab and serves as Associate Director of Penn State’s Alliance for Education, Science, Engineering and Design with Africa (AESEDA). His research explores material assemblies optimized for massively scalable radical resilience, and integrates synergetics, design innovation, network power, open-source urbanism, digital and bio-fabrication and architecture robots. Osseo-Asare is co-founding principal of Low Design Office (LOWDO), an architecture and integrated design studio based in Ghana and Texas. He led urban and strategic design for the Koumbi City and Anam City new town projects in Ghana and Nigeria. He is cofounder of Agbogbloshie Makerspace Platform (AMP), an open-source maker tech project geared for Africa, winner of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Centennial Innovation Challenge, Design Corps’ 2017 SEED Award for Public Interest Design and exhibited at the 2017 Seoul Biennale for Architecture and Urbanism and Afropixel6 / 2018 Dak’art Biennale of Contemporary African Art. He is a TED Global Fellow, Fulbright Scholar, Africa 4 Tech Digital Champion (EdTech) and presents his work internationally, including the Royal Institute of British Architects, TED Global, Smart City Expo, World Bank CitiSense, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Next Einstein Initiative/African Institute of Mathematical Sciences, MIT, Harvard, Columbia GSAPP, AfriDesignX / Victoria & Albert Museum in London and on the BBC.
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TED Fellows 2012 Cohort

Biological miner

Damian Palin
"Some see nature all ridicule and deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of a man with imagination nature is imagination itself" –William Blake I have studied and worked for a number of years in the pursuit and development of sustainable technologies. I believe that biologically inspired technologies will play a key role in the development of future sustainable societies and it is my aim to increase his knowledge and skill in this area. Current research is allowing me to assess the ability of microorganisms to precipitate and accumulate minerals (including metals) out of solution. Part of this research includes the use of microfluidic devices to better understand the chemical and kinetic interaction between certain bacteria and their inorganic precipitates. This knowledge will be invaluable–as part of continued evidence–for the development of low energetic production technologies and how if employed or mimicked nature has the potential to provide industry with radical production alternatives.
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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.