Theme: Beautiful Chaos

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized (subject to certain rules and regulations).

McCormick Tribune Auditorium
1870 Campus Dr Evanston, IL, 60201
Evanston, Illinois, 60201
United States

Archit Baskaran

Archit Baskaran is a freshman in the Honors Program in Medical Education through Northwestern University and the Feinberg School of Medicine. As a high school student, he cofounded a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization called MusiLinks which is still currently in operation and works with music volunteer groups to mobilize youth for medical and music/dance-related charity. Addition- ally, as an avid public speaker and debater, he was a 5-time Wisconsin State Champion and ranked with his team among the Top 16 Teams in the World for the International Public Policy Forum Competition via the Bickel & Brewer Law Foundation.

Aymar Jean Christian

Aymar is an assistant professor of Communication Studies at Northwestern University, and he is head of development for Open TV, a platform for queer, trans- and cis-women and artists of color.

Brian Aguado

Brian Aguado is a Ph.D. candidate in the Biomedical Engineering department at Northwestern University in the McCormick School of Engineering with a research focus in Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering. Brian’s TEDx talk is about using implantable materials for the early detection of cancer metastasis. The implantable material acts like a “bait car” and lures tumor cells away from target organs for detection. He received his B.S. degree in Biomechanical Engineering from Stanford University and his M.S. degree in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University. Brian is the recipient of a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship and the Biotechnology Training Program Fellowship. Brian is also a web writer for the Biomaterials Science blog and Helix Magazine and is currently organizing the ComSciCon-Chicago science communication workshop to be held in summer of 2015 at Northwestern.

Daphna Weinstock

Daphna Weinstock, a theatre major at Northwestern, will be graduating this spring with a focus on theatre education and a module in Theatre for Young Audiences. Daphna has brought her knowledge from the classroom and experience with theatre companies across Chicago to her student group, See- saw Theatre, where she directed this past year’s production of In The Game. Daphna, along with her fellow theatre artists, have used Seesaw as a platform for taking apart the typical theatre experience and redesigning it individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other cognitive differences. Through this work, Daphna has become passionate about creating spaces for diversity and inclusion in the arts by celebrating what makes every individual unique. Thanks to TED, TEDxNU, and to all of you for hearing her idea worth spreading!

Emily Gipple

Emily Gipple is finishing up her MBA at Kellogg. Prior to joining the Northwestern community, Emily worked as a management/strategy consultant with Oliver Wyman, helped launch a nonprofit water well drilling company in South Sudan, forecasted trends for a small defense contracting firm, wrote stories as a data reporter with a DC-based newspaper, and interned with the Emerging Markets group at Nike. Her experience across sectors got her thinking: how can organizations work together to leverage their expertise to better tackle business issues, thereby addressing social issues? She is pursuing an MBA to better understand how businesses can partner with nonprofits to address needs and manage risks in their operational activities. Emily holds a B.A. and B.B.A. from Southern Methodist University and is originally from Kansas City, home of, with- out any doubt, the best barbecue in the world.

Helen Wong

Helen Wong was born and raised in the south side of Chicago. Currently, she is an attorney for the U.S. government at the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Her work focuses on consumer protection issues involving financial technology, including emerging payment platforms and virtual currencies. Prior to the FTC, she was an attorney at the law firm of White and Case. After graduating Northwestern, Helen’s first job was as a consultant for Accenture.

JC Kibbey

J.C. Kibbey develops campaign strategy as a Public Policy Researcher with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and advocates on climate and clean energy issues as a board member of the Illinois Sierra Club. His previous work includes electoral campaigns, digital strategy and legislative affairs. He holds a master’s in public policy and administration from Northwestern University, where his thesis on the policy and politics of climate change received a 2014 Distinguished Thesis Award. His talk “Chaotic Brains, Chaotic Climate” draws on research from his thesis to explore how behavioral bias distorts our view of climate change, and how effective communication about climate can help counter those biases. He likes sci-fi, biking and black coffee.

Karl Muth

Karl joined Northwestern in 2012 and is a Lecturer in Economics, Organizational Behavior, Public Policy, and Statistics at Northwestern and the inaugural SEI Fellow at the University of Chicago. He earned J.D. and M.B.A. degrees in America prior to writing his M.Phil./Ph.D. in England at the London School of Economics. In his consulting work, Karl advises companies on how to run large experiments, visualize complex data, and utilize mathematical models. His TEDxNorthwesternU talk focuses on observing how people spend their time as a way to understand them; this is Karl’s second TEDx talk. When not teaching or consulting, Karl can be found turning wrenches under the hood of an old brown Jaguar.

Ricardo Rosenkranz

Dr. Ricardo T. Rosenkranz, MD, is an Assistant Professor in Pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. He developed a course on Medicine and Magic which he teaches to first and second year medical students. He also regularly teaches a course on Magic and Medicine in Las Vegas. Ricardo’s favorite movies are Casablanca and Moonstruck, and he loves to photograph wildlife and ride road bikes. A fun fact about Ricardo--he is an avid magician and is preparing a one man show that will debut this fall in Chicago.

Scott Ely

Since graduating NU (MSIT99), Scott Ely has been in nonstop evolution as an entrepreneur, author, explorer, musician and mind-hacker. His journey to over 50 countries, founding of multiple businesses, and conducting of over 100 challenging life-experiments now culminates in the creation of systems to help people rapidly reboot, rewire and rethink the way they live and work. His TEDx talk is themed around his book Evolve Faster, a manifesto to hit the philosophical reset button and free our minds in preparation for what he calls society’s Next Evolution. Scott lives in Chicago’s Bucktown neighborhood where he can likely be found reading, writing, performing with his band, hacking startup ventures, and constantly upgrading through life experiments and travel.

Steve Reed

Steve Reed is a Clinical Professor of Law, the Assistant Director of the Entrepreneurship Law Center, and Co-Director of the JD-MBA Program at Northwestern University School of Law. In the clinical program of the Entrepreneurship Law Center, Reed works with students to represent start-ups, more mature companies and social entrepreneurs in a variety of transactional matters. In the classroom, he teaches Business Associations, Advanced Corporate Law and Mergers & Acquisitions, and co-teaches Entrepreneurship Law. Reed also co-teaches Law and the Entrepreneur, a Massive Open Online Course offered by Northwestern University and Coursera that attracted over 35,000 students worldwide in its first session.

Umang Jain

Umang graduated from NU in 2012, and is currently a fourth year medical student at Feinberg School of Medicine. Umang’s global health experience stems from his work in Global Strategy and Developing Countries at the Institute of Healthcare Improvement (IHI) in Boston, MA. He worked closely with Dr. Donald Berwick (former CMS administrator under Barack Obama) and Sir Nigel Crisp (former Chief Executive of UK’s NHS) on engaging in evidence-based healthcare improvement interventions on a global scale. Umang will train in a community hospital in South Africa in February 2016.