Theme: Finding x

On February 6, 2016, TEDxBerkeley is hosting a collection of world-leading thinkers, makers, and doers at the 7th annual TEDxBerkeley: "Finding x."

Join more than 2,000 students, UC Berkeley faculty members, citizens of Berkeley and citizens of the world at Zellerbach Hall for a day of mind-blowing presentations, discussions, and performances that will revolutionize the way you view the world.

Zellerbach Auditorium
101 Zellerbach Hall # 4800
University of California
Berkeley, California, 94720-4800
United States

Celli @ Berkeley

Dabbling in classical, pop, and everything in between, this group of both undergraduate and graduate cellists hopes to pioneer new frontiers with the possibility of the cello.

Oakland School for the Arts Chamber Choir

The OSA Chamber Choir is the largest vocal performance ensemble at the Oakland School for the Arts and has performance credits both locally and abroad. This ensemble has performed at many notable events such as the Inauguration of Gov. Jerry Brown, President Obama’s 2012 campaign tour, the Giants Game at AT&T park, the Raiders and Warriors games at the Oakland Coliseum, and for Notes and Words at the Fox Theatre Oakland. They've performed for actors and celebrities Latoya London, Ledisi, Patrice Rushen, Pete Escovedo, Sean Penn, Robert Downey Jr., and the band CAKE. The OSA Chamber Choir is directed by Cava Menzies (Music Department Chair and Arts Principal).

Rose Gelfand, Molly Gardner & Isabelle Ansari

Despite being only 17 years old, Rose Gelfand, Molly Gardner, and Isabelle Ansari, three award-winning poets from the Oakland School for the Arts, seek to speak truth of their experiences and articulate their reflections on the world.

UC Berkeley Azaad

Amandine Roche

After the kidnapping and assassination of her colleagues, Amandine was evacuated from Kabul. She recovered from her traumas and found her inner peace in India where she studied the ancient techniques of meditation and yoga with spiritual Masters. Once she realized that outer peace can only be created through inner peace, she returned to Kabul to set up the Amanuddin Foundation and to develop an inner peace keeping program for global peace keepers.

Andrew Siemion

Dr. Andrew Siemion is one of the leaders of the “Breakthrough Listen Initiative” – a 10 year, 100 million dollar effort, sponsored by Yuri Milner’s Breakthrough Prize Foundation, that is conducting the most sensitive search for advanced extraterrestrial life in history. Dr. Siemion is an astrophysicist at the University of California (UC), Berkeley and serves as Director of the UC Berkeley Center for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Research. He frequently appears on international television and radio discussing the search for life beyond on Earth and the prospects for detection.

Aran Khanna

Aran Khanna is currently a member of the class of 2016 at Harvard College, where he studies computer science and mathematics. Aran is a student-developer and blogger who is working to understand the consequences of the increasing role of technology in our lives, particularly in the realm of personal privacy. As someone who loves building software Aran’s approach is to build the tools that empower users to discover for themselves the consequences of the digital footprint they are leaving.Notably Aran’s work on disclosing the dangers of default location sharing in Facebook Messenger spurred Facebook to remove the feature from Messenger. It also prompted Facebook to rescind Aran’s internship offer, raising questions about how social media companies respond to privacy issues.

Christopher Ategeka

Chris is an award winning social entrepreneur, an engineer, and an inventor at heart. Chris has invented many products but his most recent adventure is the invention of a patented novel technology for early detection and monitoring of chronic diseases using nano-technology. Before that, he was the Founder/CEO of Rides for Lives a company that builds innovative vehicles that deliver healthcare services in hard to reach areas in developing countries. Chris has won numerous awards for this work--most notably named Forbes 30 under 30, Echoing Green Fellow, Ashoka Fellow, and Muhammad Ali Humanitarian. Chris holds a Bachelor’s of Science, and Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of California, Berkeley.

Deborah Johnson

Deborah Johnson is a voice for compassion, justice, and reconciliation. She holds a vision of Oneness, beyond creed and doctrine, and builds bridges between those adhering to conservative and progressive ideologies. A primary focus has been on coalition building and conflict resolution at the intersections of public policy, social mores, human rights, cultural sensitivity awareness, and religious freedom. A staunch social change agent, Deborah Johnson is a successful litigant in two landmark cases including one that set precedence for the inclusion of sexual orientation in California’s Civil Rights Bill in 1984. Training, consulting, convening, and facilitating for groups large and small, her clients have included Hewlett Packard, The Ford Foundation, University of California, AT&T, Kaiser Permanente, Eastman Kodak, SBC Communications, Center For Disease Control, MCA Universal, and Centers for Spiritual Living.

Ellen Petry Leanse

Harnessing lessons from Apple, Google, entrepreneurship, and research in neuroscience and anthropology, Ellen Leanse brings unique perspective to her work with rising companies and leaders. A digital pioneer – Ellen brought Apple online in 1985 – and road-tested entrepreneur, Ellen has guided more than 40 technology companies spanning early stage to global leaders including Microsoft, Facebook, Samsung, Intuit, Oracle, and Women 2.0. Her work since then has focused on bringing companies and customers closer together through digital and offline innovation, mapping unique frameworks that create value and mutual benefit.

Isha Ray

Isha Ray is Associate Professor at the Energy and Resources Group and Co-Director (with Professor David Sedlak) of the Berkeley Water Center. Dr. Ray’s research interests are water and development; water, sanitation and gender; and technology and development. Her research projects focus on access to water and sanitation for the rural and urban poor, and on the role of technology in advancing sustainable development goals and improving livelihoods.

Jacob Corn

Jacob Corn is the Managing Director and Scientific Director of the Innovative Genomics Initiative and faculty at UC Berkeley in the department of Molecular & Cell Biology. Jacob’s research generally bridges reductionist mechanism with cell biology, with the overarching goal of understanding how biophysical properties interact within the cellular environment to shape signaling behavior and how disease arises when these properties go awry. As the director of the IGI, Jacob is committed to pushing the boundaries of next-generation genome editing for transformative insights into fundamental biologies and to laying the groundwork for clinical and commercial applications of the technology.

Jeromy Johnson

Jeromy Johnson is an expert in mitigating the negative impacts of Electromagnetic Field (EMF) exposure. He has a leading website on the topic and consults with individuals, families and organizations around the world to implement solutions that reduce and eliminate EMF pollution. Jeromy has an advanced degree in Civil Engineering and has worked in Silicon Valley for 15 years. After becoming what medical doctors call “Electro-hypersensitive” (EHS) in 2011 after extensive exposure to EMF radiation, he embarked on a journey of regaining his own health and educating others to critically evaluate theirs.

John Koenig

John has spent the last decade building a home in every creative field he can find, working as a graphic designer, video editor, voice actor, illustrator, photographer, director, and writer. He has spent the last six years writing an original dictionary of made-up words, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, which fills gaps in the language with hundreds of new terms for emotions, some of which (‘sonder’) have entered the language outright. His writing has been published in countless tattoos, novels, and band names—but never on paper, though he is currently working on publishing a book adaptation. “Koenig is a writer to be reckoned with. He’s enormously creative, and he understands the power, life force, and funniness of sadness. The Dictionary is the kind of thing you want to print and bind, and refer to often.” –Business Standard

Joshua Toch

At the age of 15, Toch started to take a stance against bullying in his own community by speaking up about his personal experiences of getting bullied because of his disability--cerebral palsy. Through witnessing the impact of his activism, Toch along with a team of other young entrepreneurial innovators, founded Mind Before Mouth, which equips students to better deal with the social aspects of life.

Kathy Calvin

Kathy Calvin is President and Chief Executive Officer of the United Nations Foundation. Her career has spanned work in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. She is a passionate advocate for multi-sector problem-solving, U.S. leadership on global issues, and the inclusion of women at all levels and in all sectors.

Naveen Jain

Naveen Jain is an entrepreneur and philanthropist driven to solve the world’s biggest challenges through innovation. He is a founder of Moon Express, World Innovation Institute, inome, Talent Wise, Intelius, and InfoSpace. He is a regular contributor to the Forbes, WSJ, INC and Huffington Post. Naveen is also on the board of Singularity University, an interdisciplinary university with the mission to educate and inspire leaders to address humanity’s grand challenges through innovative technologies.

Rob Hotchkiss

Rob Hotchkiss won a Grammy Award (Best Rock Song) for five-time nominated “Drops of Jupiter”, and was the musical force behind hits such as Meet Virginia,Free, I Am , and Get To Me. Rob founded the band, Train, and his songwriting was integral to their multi-platinum success. For creative reasons Rob left Train after their third album to record and produce the solo album, Midnight Ghost, which received tremendous critical acclaim. Rob is currently performing as a solo artist, writing songs and performing in the Bay Area and Los Angeles, with plans to tour the West Coast.

Sonia Rao

A finalist on NBC The Voice and BMI's Spotlight Indie Artist, Sonia Rao is constantly on the road. Her songs have been featured on more than 35 shows including MTV’s Jersey Shore, ABC’s The Vineyard, and Keeping Up With the Kardashians. But dig into Sonia’s music and you’ll discover she’s an ever-forward-moving vessel of inspiration. Appropriately, at a recent TEDxWomen event, she was asked to perform and speak about gender equality, just one of the issues she holds dear. Sonia has fostered a uniquely direct and loyal relationship with her fans and, using crowdfunding, has independently raised over $40,000 to fund the recording of three albums. She will be releasing her newest album, Meet Them at the Door, in August 2016.

Sriram Shamasunder

Dr. Sriram Shamasunder, a poet and Academic Hospitalist at UCSF, has spent the better part of the last 10 years working in Burundi, Haiti, Rwanda and India. He is interested in health equity and narrative equity, working towards a world where lives are of equal value both the health care we deliver and the stories we highlight.

Stephanie Freid

A television correspondent for CCTV (China) and Turkish Television International networks, and former freelance producer for NBC News, the BBC, Reuters, Stephanie reports from the world’s conflict zones. Assignments include the wars in Syria, Ukraine, Libya, Iraq, Mali and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Ebola’s outbreak in West Africa and the current refugee crisis. She views her work as a privilege – close proximity to conflict affords glimpses of humankind’s ugliest and most incredible traits.

Susan Lim

Dr. Susan Lim’s historic performance of the first successful cadaveric liver transplant for Singapore and Asia in 1990 propelled her into the media spotlight at the age of 35. She broke through the gender glass ceiling in transplantation surgery and became the first in Asia, and the second woman in the world to have performed a successful liver transplant at that time. Despite her success as a surgeon, Dr. Lim began contemplating the possibilities of creating new organs and implanting them with robotic surgeons.