This years TEDxJCUCairns will feature a number of 'Ideas worth spreading." Speakers will include:

The Cairns Institute
14-88 McGregor Road
Smithfield, Queensland, 4878
Australia

Allan Dale

Allan is a Professor of Tropical Regional Development with The Cairns Institute; James Cook University. He has a keen passion for what in works society and what doesn’t. He believes that many of the success and failures can be attributed to function. Active involvement is vital in determining our own, our country and the world’s fate. Allan has both extensive research and policy expertise in governance systems and integrated natural resource management and is the current Chair of Regional Development Australia Far North Queensland and Torres Strait.

Andrew Lane

Andrew is an architect with a passion for motorcycles that is as deep as his passion for architecture. Life circumstances meant putting both passions into hibernation but he now runs his own architectural design practice with his wife Francoise and owns two motorbikes (and counting). He is a firm believer of the adage that the number of motorbikes a rider should own is n+1 where n is the number of motorbikes already owned.

Chris Ah Gee

Chris Ah Gee is one of Australia’s most promising upcoming artists. A self-taught singer/songwriter/musician, Chris launched himself onto the Cairns music scene as a solo artist in 2011. Chris has supported Vance Joy, Russell Morris, Stan Walker and Powderfinger’s Bernard Fanning, among others. Chris’ laidback, soulful vibe has been compared to a cross between Matt Corby and Jason Mraz.

Georgia Bruce

Georgia Bruce is a bronze medal winning paralympian who has been training horses from wild brumbies through to elite performance horses for more than 20 years. Georgia has also worked with exotic animals including cheetahs, lemurs, spider monkeys and rhinos. Georgia uses positive reinforcement techniques (Clicker Training) and demonstrates these techniques at trick shows and training demonstrations around Australia with her quarter horse gelding, “Rumba the Wonder Horse.” She grew up and enjoys living in Kuranda, Far North Queensland

Helen Ramoutsaki

Helen Ramoutsaki is a writer, performance poet, storyteller and educator. Drawing on her eighteen years in Far North Queensland, Helen’s poetry evokes the experience of living in the Wet Tropics with all its fascinations and challenges. Her current project, Wet: An Appetite For The Tropics, blends performed poetry, photographs and narrative in a series of theatrical performances that explore relationships between people and the tropical environment. These works are part of Helen’s creative practice-led doctoral research at James Cook University and are being developed with support and mentoring from JUTE Theatre’s Enter Stage Writer program in Cairns.

Jennie Gilbert

Jennie Gilbert is a marine biologist who is passionate about rehabilitating and saving turtles. She is one of the co-founders and driving forces behind Cairns Turtle Rehabilitation Centre (CTRC). Working mainly on the Great Barrier Reef, CTRC attracts international research students and has more than 200 volunteers. They have been responsible for rescuing countless marine turtles that would otherwise not survive. When rehabilitated and released the turtles are tagged with satellite tracking which gathers vital data for conservation. Jennie finds nothing more rewarding than watching a healthy sea turtle return to the ocean and believes strongly of the importance of combining passion and research.

Jesse T Martin

Jesse T Martin is the founder and Director of the Streets Movement Organisation. Jesse is of Indigenous decent with his people coming from Sydney and the Torres Strait. He has a degree in politics and international relations, and is a fighter in and out of the boxing ring. His firm and unwavering conviction for human rights and social justice has ignited the ideology and formation of the Streets Movement.

Klaus Gebel

Dr Klaus Gebel is a Senior Research Fellow at the College of Public Health, Medical and Veterinary Sciences at the Cairns campus of James Cook University. He has master degrees in exercise science from the German Sport University Cologne and Victoria University, Melbourne, and a PhD in public health from the University of Sydney. His main research areas are the relationship between built environments and physical activity and health effects of physical activity. Klaus has studied and worked at seven universities in three countries and has received multiple scholarships and awards.

Michelle Deshong

Michelle Deshong was named the 2015 National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) Scholar of the year. Michelle is from Townsville and draws her connection to Kuku Yulanji and Butchulla nations. She has extensive experience in areas of leadership, governance and politics and completed a BA with First Class Honours in Political Science and Indigenous studies at James Cook University. She is completing her PhD in ‘enabling the participation of Aboriginal Women in public and political life in Australia.’ In 2013 Michelle was named in the Australian Financial Review/Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards. She was recently awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to work with the First Nations women in America.

Naomi Wenitong

Naomi Wenitong is an Indigenous singer-songwriter born in Cairns. From supporting the likes of Destiny’s Child, Public Enemy, Usher, Kylie Minogue, and climbing the ARIA charts with Shakaya, Naomi became disillusioned and disheartened by the state of the commercial major label music world and decided to change direction. With a story as inspirational as it is unique, her passion, resilience and exceptional musical ability have fueled her journey from humble beginnings to the world stage.

Nicholas Paul

Dr Nicholas Paul is a Principal Research Fellow in Marine and Environmental Science at James Cook University in Australia. He leads research and development on algae at the university’s acclaimed Centre for Macroalgal Resources and Biotechnology (MACRO). The Centre specialises in innovative ways of treating wastewater and developing new products, from food to biofuel, using algae sourced from the tropics. He has projects that are both developing and delivering this technology in Australia, the Pacific Islands and South East Asia.

Robert Rutten

Robert Rutten is a commerce and marketing professional and has run ITC businesses since the mid 90's. With a passion for free networks, open source and a free and open internet he consults to businesses about strategic IT issues in their internal and external environment. A regular on regional ABC radio, his talkback segment "RadioGeek" has been on the air for 8 years.

Rosalie Hocking

Rosalie Hocking is a chemist who leads a program studying small molecule transformations at James Cook University. Rosalie completed her PhD in physial and inorganic chemistry from the University Sydney in 2004 with Professor Trevor Hambley. She immediately took up a postdoctoral position at Stanford University and Stanford Synchroton radiation laboratory with Professors Ed Solomon, Keith Hodgson and Britt Hedman, developing a range of synchroton based spectroscopic techniques. Since returning to Australia she has held the positions of environmental spectroscopist for CSIRO Land and Water and beam-line research at Monash University, before taking up her current position as senior lecturer in physical and analytical chemistry at James Cook University.

Sue Ryan

As a child Sue loved two things – animals and art. Growing up she cared for many animals including a sea eagle, snakes, horses and dogs – there was always a dog. She also enjoyed collecting all manner of materials to make art. In 2008, after years in the arts industry, she was appointed to undertake a scoping study to examine the possibility of ghost net as an art material in the remote Indigenous communities where is was washing ashore. It was inevitable that she would introduce in into her own arts practice. Sue continues to work with Indigenous communities and ghost net today.

Tulsa Gautam

Tulsa Gautum is a woman with an amazing story to share. After spending most of her life in a refugee camp in Nepal, she is now happy to call Cairns her home, cherishing her very full and busy lifestyle. Tulsa is a member of the Cairns Bhutanese/Nepalese community and an artist of dance and drama. Once a presenter at Cairns FM 89.1, Tulsa is now a second year Nursing student at James Cook University, where she leads others as a mentor leader as well as a student representative and an ambassador for the University. In her spare time (where does she find the time?), Tulsa has worked as a support worker at the Gordonvale Disability Centre in the Young Lifestyle Care program and is currently working at the Cairns Hospital as a nurse assistant.