Theme: The Big Adventure

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).

Ferme du Biéreau
Avenue du Jardin Botanique
Louvain-la-Neuve, Brabant wallon (fr), 1348
Belgium

Bernard Hanseeuw

Neurologist

Dr. Bernard Hanseeuw graduated as a Medical Doctor at UCLouvain in 2007. Four years later, he defended a PhD thesis on brain imaging in early Alzheimer’s detection. After his residency in Neurology, he left for Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School to train in molecular PET imaging of amyloid and tau proteins. Bernard Hanseeuw conducts research in Boston and Brussels; he aims at better understanding the pathophysiological mechanisms leading to Alzheimer’s pathology in older adults, to guide clinical trials to success.

Coralie Buxant

PhD in Social Psychology

Docteure en psychologie, Coralie Buxant enseigne la psychologie sociale à l’UCL, l’Université de Namur, l’ICHEC-Brussels Management School et l’IHECS. Elle a initié l’expérimentation Housing First Belgium – objectif opérationnel du Second Plan Fédéral de lutte contre la pauvreté – avec des opérateurs publics et privés de l’action sociale de 8 grandes villes belges (via un subside de la Loterie Nationale). Il s’agissait de tester l’efficience d’une nouvelle politique publique (réinsertion immédiate par le logement des sans-abri fragiles) par comparaison à l’offre de services actuelle. Elle en a assuré sa coordination scientifique et stratégique. Elle coordonne aujourd’hui le Housing First Belgium – LAB, structure de soutien au développement de pratiques Housing First, au sein du Service Public de Programmation – Intégration Sociale.

Diane Delava

Engaged student

Diane got her MA in Business Engineering in June 2016. Before going on the job market, she decided to take a year to get involved in civic participation projects. Since September, she has been the President of Academics for Development in Louvain-la-Neuve, a student association that promotes social entrepreneurship and sustainable development. She is also an active member of the group of young ambassadors for the European Structured Dialog, member of the general assembly of the NGO Plan Belgique and takes part in various international activities with young people.

Edoardo Traversa

Law professor

Edoardo Traversa is a professor of Taxation law and policy and Vice-Dean of international relations at the UCLouvain and a visiting professor in different European universities (Bologna, Leuven, Vienna, Valencia). He frequently intervenes in the media, advises European and Belgian public authorities and holds public talks on tax policy issues. He is also a lawyer and a local councillor in a Brussels municipality. Multicultural and multilingual, passionate about Europe, he eagerly explores new ways to reinvent democracy and (tax) citizenship.

Edouard Jacqmin

Musician & traveler

Edouard, 24, is a composer, a songwriter and a producer from Belgium. He graduated from the Middlesex University of London in music composition in 2015 and over the past year and a half he has been releasing music and gigging. In June 2016 he took his guitar on his back and went on a 21-day moneyless journey across Eastern Europe. Through hitchhiking and asking random people in the street “Hello, can I sleep at your place tonight?” he managed to travel in 5 different countries without spending a cent. It is during this trip that he wrote his first EP ‘Happily’, released in November 2016. The EP contains the 4 songs he wrote in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Hungary. He lives in Brussels and is currently working on his first album.

Elynn Gorris

Dr. Elynn Gorris is a Postdoctoral Researcher in Ancient Near Eastern Studies at the Oriental Institute of the Catholic University of Louvain and works mainly on the history of the Arabian Gulf states during the 1st millennium BC. She studies diplomatic ties and political treaties between Mesopotamia, Elam and Dilmun based on Akkadian and Elamite textual sources.

Geoffrey Roy

Engineer (PhD researcher)

Geoffrey holds a Master in Mechatronic Engineering and a PhD in Engineering from the Université catholique de Louvain where he works as a senior researcher at the Institute of Mechanics, Materials and Civil Engineering (iMMC). Within the Division of Materials and Process Engineering (IMAP), his research is focused on the development of new materials and systems that convert heat into electricity for a range of applications going from industrial waste heat recovery to autonomous powering of smart sensors. In his research, he pays particular attention to the development of new solutions that present improved both technical and economical profiles in order to facilitate the emergence of these solutions out of the lab. This research is followed by several companies such as: Drever International, AGC Glass Europe, Carmeuse or Engie.

Hazem Yabroudi

Social Interpreter

Originaire de Damas, Hazem a complété 4 ans de belgitude, après avoir été diplômé de l’UCL respectivement en Linguistique et en Littératures Romanes. Il partage sa vie quotidienne avec sa famille d’accueil belge. Cette position privilégiée combinée avec ses racines et le lien permanent qu’il garde avec son pays en souffrance et avec sa famille d’origine à Damas, ont fait de lui un pont entre deux mondes. La rencontre avec l’Autre et la construction d’un monde meilleur le passionnent. Il s’engage autant pour la Belgique que pour son pays d’origine. Voir son pays d’origine en paix est un objectif pour lequel il se bat constamment. Membre actif du Groupe du dialogue islamo-chrétien de Louvain-la-Neuve, son activisme harmonise différentes thématiques qui sont des défis concrets pour la Belgique, tels que la promotion de la tendance ouverte en Islam. Par ailleurs, il participe à l’animation d’ateliers sur la non-violence.

Lionel Dricot

Futurologist

Passionné par la relation de l’homme avec la technologie, Lionel - Ploum pour les intimes - aide les entreprises et individus à s’inscrire dans une quête de sens tournée vers le futur.

Olivier Collignon

Psychologist (PhD)

Olivier Collignon completed his PhD in psychology at the Catholic University of Louvain in 2006. His laboratory relies on the respective advantages of a plurality of methods (Psychophysics, EEG/MEG, stereotactic-EEG, TMS, fMRI) to converge toward a comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms underlying crossmodal perception and plasticity. His research is driven by the strong conviction that the study of sensory deprived individuals represents an excellent model to probe how the brain develops, maintains and changes its functional tuning to adapt its interaction with the environment.

Perrine Pilette

Researchers in Middle Eastern Studies

Dr. Perrine Pilette is currently a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Oriental Institute at the Catholic University of Louvain and at the Belgian National Research Fund. After a Master in Oriental Languages during which she specialized in the successive languages of Egypt (Ancient Egyptian, Coptic, Greek, Arabic), she wrote her PhD (2014) in the field of Coptic-Arabic literature.

Raphaël Esterhazy

Musician & producer

Raphaël Esterhazy est un musicien, compositeur et producteur originaire de Wavre en Belgique qui se produit sous le nom de scène Konoba. Il a passé cinq années à Londres et Brighton à étudier la musique et à travailler sur ses propres compositions avant de retourner vers sa Belgique natale. Son premier album “Smoke & Mirrors” est sorti en Janvier 2017. Raphaël se plaît à mélanger les sons d’instruments organiques avec des techniques de production électronique et tente de ne mettre aucunes limites à sa créativité. Ses expériences musicales et sonores l’ont mené notamment à composer un morceau entier à l’aide de sons enregistrés à travers la ville de Bruxelles, ou encore à mélanger une douzaine de titres d’artistes Belges en un grand mashup.

René Rezsohazy

Biologist

René Rezsohazy, 50 ans, est biologiste, chercheur et enseignant. Après un doctorat à l’UCL, René Rezsohazy se rend à Amsterdam pour un séjour postdoctoral où il étudie la biologie d’un petit ver nématode qui nous ressemble plus qu’il n’en a l’air. De retour en Belgique, il développe des recherches scientifiques qu’il poursuit toujours pour comprendre comment certains gènes, appelés « gènes architectes » contribuent au contrôle du développement embryonnaire des animaux et de l’homme. Ses recherches le mènent également à porter un regard sur l’évolution biologique et à réfléchir sur ce qu’est la science. Professeur, il enseigne l’embryologie, l’évolution et la biologie moléculaire à l’UCL. Il est enfin Vice-doyen de la Faculté des sciences de l’UCL.

Sophie Dandache

PhD researcher in Educational Studies

Sophie Dandache got a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL). She then started a Ph.D. in Orthopedagogy at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL), where she focuses her research on comparing dyslexia in different languages. Passionate about empirical research, she has been attracted to the innovative quality of the MOOC project and the way it increases access to higher education all around the world. This interest in exploring how such a project works and what its place is in the changing field of education has led her to start a postdoc as a member of the MoocQuality program at UCL.

Stipe Odak

Sociologist

Art, theology, social sciences, divided in equal parts of profession and fun, beat the rhythm of Stipe Odak’s everyday life. He is currently finishing a joint PhD project that blends religion and conflict resolution, UC Louvain and KU Leuven, field-work and paper-work. Some time ago, he obtained BA and MA degrees in Sociology, Comparative literature, and Theology from the University of Zagreb, and Advanced MA in Theology and Religious Studies from KU Leuven.