Live from TEDGlobal 2017 TED Fellows

Meet the TEDGlobal 2017 Fellows

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Meet the new class of TEDGlobal 2017 Fellows! Representing 18 countries — including, for the first time in our program, Somalia, Uruguay, Liberia and Zimbabwe — this class clears a high bar of talent, creativity and eccentricity. Among those selected, you’ll find a Somali computer scientist catalyzing the tech scene in Somalia and Somaliland; a policy influencer working to make healthcare Deaf-friendly; the founder of Botswana’s first and only LGBT-themed theater festival, and many more.

Below, get to know the new group of Fellows who will join us at TEDGlobal 2017, August 27–30, in Arusha, Tanzania.


Nighat Dad
Nighat Dad (Pakistan)
Digital rights activist
Pakistani founder of the Digital Rights Foundation, a research and advocacy NGO that protects women and minorities from cyber harassment and defends their online freedom of expression.


Kyle DeCarlo
Kyle DeCarlo (USA)
Policy influencer + healthcare entrepreneur
US co-founder of the Deaf Health Initiative (DHI), an organization working to make healthcare Deaf-friendly through advocacy, policy changes and the creation of new medical devices.


Abdigani Diriye
Abdigani Diriye (USA)
Tech entrepreneur + inventor
Somali computer scientist catalyzing the tech scene in Somalia and Somaliland through coding camps, incubators and accelerator programs. An inventor and advocate for innovation and research in Africa.


With Moving and Passing, a multidisciplinary project that combines performance, sports and culture, artist Marc Bamuthi Joseph invites immigrant youth to join soccer clinics and writing workshops. (Photo: Joan Osato)


Susan Emmett
Susan Emmett (USA)
Ear surgeon
US public health expert and ear surgeon studying global hearing health disparities in 15 countries and Indigenous groups around the world, in an effort to fight preventable hearing loss


Mennat El Ghalid
Mennat El Ghalid (France | Egypt)
Mycologist
Egyptian microbiologist studying fungal infections in humans, in an effort to discover their causes and develop new treatments and cofounder of ConScience, a nonprofit dedicated to science education.


Victoria Forster
Victoria Forster (UK | Canada)
Cancer researcher
UK scientist researching new treatments for pediatric cancer, drawing on her own experience with leukemia to investigate the devastating side effects of current therapies


Mike Gil
Mike Gil (USA)
Marine biologist + science advocate
US marine biologist who studies the way reef fish communicate — and what these social interactions mean for the future of our coral reefs.


Robert Hakiza
Robert Hakiza (DRC | Uganda)
Urban refugee expert
Congolese cofounder of the Young African Refugees for Integral Development (YARID), which empowers refugees and builds community through vocational education, English classes, access to sports and computer literacy skills.


Miho Janvier
Miho Janvier (France)
Solar storm scientist
French astrophysicist who works to predict “space weather” by studying the nature of solar flares and space storms, and how they impact planetary environments in our solar system and beyond.


Astrophysicist Miho Janvier researches solar flares — the extreme bursts of radiation from the sun’s surface pictured here — and what they might mean for possible interstellar travel. (Photo: Solar Dynamics Observatory, NASA)


Saran Kaba Jones
Saran Kaba Jones (Liberia | USA)
Clean water advocate
Liberian founder and CEO of FACE Africa, which strengthens water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) infrastructure in rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa through the establishment of community-based WASH Committees and post-implementation support services.


Marc Bamuthi Joseph
Marc Bamuthi Joseph (USA)
Writer + performer
US artist and curator investigating cultural erasure through performance, ranging from opera to dance theater.


Adong Judith
Adong Judith (Uganda)
Director + playwright
Ugandan director and playwright creating theater that promotes social change and provokes dialogue on issues from LGBTQ rights to war crimes.


The National Theater in Kampala’s 2016 production of Ga-AD!, a play directed by Adong Judith exploring spirituality and the place of women in Pentecostal churches. (Photo: Zahara Abdul)


Yasin Kakande
Yasin Kakande (Uganda)
Investigative journalist + author
Ugandan journalist working undercover in the Middle East to uncover the human-rights abuses of migrant workers.


Katlego Kolanyane-Kesupile
Katlego Kolanyane-Kesupile (Botswana)
Performance artist + activist
Writer, educator and founder of the Queer Shorts Showcase Festival, Botswana’s first and only LGBT-themed theatre festival.


Romain Lacombe
Romain Lacombe (France)
Clean air entrepreneur
French founder of Plume Labs, a company dedicated to raising awareness about global air pollution by creating a personal electronic pollution tracker that forecasts pollution levels in real time.


Kasiva Mutua
Kasiva Mutua (Kenya)
Percussionist
International touring percussionist working to elevate the place of the African woman in music. Her performance style integrates African traditional music with modern styles such as jazz, hip-hop, reggae and zouk.


Kenyan percussionist Kasiva Mutua performs with the Nairobi Horns Project at the Michael Joseph Centre in Nairobi in 2016. (Photo: Mbarathi Karuga)


Carl Joshua Ncube
Carl Joshua Ncube (Zimbabwe)
Comedian
Zimbabwean standup comic who uses his creative work to approach culturally taboo topics on the African continent.


Wale Oyéjidé
Walé Oyéjidé (Nigeria | USA)
Fashion designer + artist
Nigerian fashion designer and artist who uses textile and apparel design to convey stories about immigrant populations to the Western world.


Fashion created by Nigerian designer Walé Oyéjidé. (Photo: Rog Walker for Ikiré Jones)


Christian Rodriguez
Christian Rodriguez (Uruguay | Mexico)
Documentary photographer
Uruguayan photographer exploring global gender and identity issues, with a specific focus on teenage pregnancy in Latin America.


Micaela (15 years old) and her newborn, Franco, in Uruguay, photographed by Christian Rodriguez, who documents teenage pregnancy throughout Latin America.


Edsel Salvana
Edsel Salvana (Philippines)
Molecular epidemiologist + activist
Filipino physician fighting the HIV epidemic by using cutting-edge molecular tools in order to predict which patients are likely to fail treatment.


Pratik Shah
Pratik Shah (India | USA)
Medical technology scientist
Indian scientist developing new artificial intelligence architectures for antibiotic discovery, faster clinical trials and non-ionizing clinical imaging devices that might one day replace dental X-rays.