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).

Centralværkstedet
Værkmestergade 9
Aarhus, Midtjylland, 8000
Denmark

Andreas Haugaard Lausten

Andreas Hougaard Lausten is an award winning engineer and researcher.He has developed human antibodies against toxins from venomous snakes by using modern biotechnological methods. It’s the first antibodies against toxins from the black mamba. Andreas is Associate Professor at DTU BIOENGINEERING, Department of Biotechnology and Biomedicin at the Technical University of Denmark.

Brice Johnson

Brice Johnson is co-founder and member of The Hood Lockers (dance crew based out of Philadelphia, PA). He has been teaching and performing on stages, film, studios and television across the globe for 15 years. Brice is from USA and currently living in Denmark. In the US he had a successful career including performing with Madonna and with credits from the TV show So You Think You Can Dance.

Casper Schmidt

Based on his neuroscientific research, Casper Schmidt established early neurobiological markers of porn addiction – which in June 2018 led to its inclusion in the World Health Organization’s list of diseases, opening new doors for treatment of this group of individuals. Casper finished his PhD in Clinical Neuroscience in the summer of 2019 and now works as an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology at Aalborg University. The idea for his work on porn addiction originated from a TED talk back in 2013 revealing a new phenomenon of people reporting porn as an addiction. Casper’s fascination by the brain fuelled his studies on this topic, which has led to remarkable results.Based on his neuroscientific research, Casper Schmidt established early neurobiological markers of porn addiction – which in June 2018 led to its inclusion in the World Health Organization’s list of diseases, opening new doors for treatment of this group of individuals. Casper finished his PhD in Clinical Neuroscience in the summer of 2019 and now works as an Assistant Professor in Clinical Psychology at Aalborg University. The idea for his work on porn addiction originated from a TED talk back in 2013 revealing a new phenomenon of people reporting porn as an addiction. Casper’s fascination by the brain fuelled his studies on this topic, which has led to remarkable results.

Cecilie Mai Sommer

Cecilie Mai Sommer suffers from OCD, anxiety and Borderline personality disorder, and has been seeing 12 different psychologists. Currently, she is on sick leave from her bachelor studies at Multiplatform Storytelling and Production. “I’ve been mentally ill for as long as I remember. Besides struggling my own battles due to my mental illnesses, I’ve had to struggle with people’s prejudice about mental illness as well. One of the things I’ve learned along the way is that I can change people’s opinions by explaining and being open about my disorders.”

Emma Holtet

Emma Elisabeth Holtet is a trained performer from The London School of Dramatic Arts, and Bachelor of Arts from Copenhagen University. She is reigning “Aarhus Poetry Slam Champion” and winner of this year’s “English Poetry Slam Copenhagen Cup”.

FJER Maja Barløse

Forward-thinking Danish electro-soul-R&B artist Fjer is the moniker of Maja Barløse. As a rare triple-threat singer/songwriter/producer, she wields a command of high-caliber songwriting and has a distinctive voice that is both airy and soulful.

Ludvig Muren

Ludvig Muren is Professor at the Dept. of Medical Physics and the Danish Center for Particle Therapy, Aarhus University/Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark. In 2009 he received the Young Elite Scientist Award from the Danish Medical Research Council. During his career he has acquired full funding for 28 PhD/postdoc projects – amounting to almost 50 million DKK. “As a physicist working on a very hard problem, how to cure patients from cancer, I want to share my fascination of how understanding physics can be used in such a meaningful way as to treat cancer. Underneath all of this is my personal story, about how what I do at work every day is connected to my life as a young boy and what happened to me back then. I hope it will also be an inspirational story about how you can turn something as devastating as what happened in my childhood into a strength and a motivation.”

Maria Herholdt Engermann

Maria has a background within filmmaking and has been specializing in VR storytelling for the last 4 years. She is now the proud owner of her own VR company based in Aarhus. The company creates VR experiences for both business and art – and strives to create the next generation of media entertainment. “I’m a huge VR fan. I have always loved a good story and always wanted to be surrounded by my favorite stories and universes. I love theme parks because they make me feel like I’m a part of that theme and story. With VR I see a lot of new possibilities of telling stories and to become a part of them.”

Sara Andersson

Sara Andersson is an award-winning industrial designer (MSc Integrated Product Design, Delft University of Technology) and the founder of her own consultancy business, with the mission to create sustainable change through design. She also participates in two different EU projects, which both focus on helping small and middle-sized enterprises develop solutions for a circular economy.

Signe M. Hegestand

Signe M. Hegestand is an authorized Psychologist, Psychotherapist and Mindfulness Instructor. In her work, she has been focusing on psychologically abusive relations for the last 5 years, because – as she says: “psychological violence is overlooked, destructive and destroying”.

Steffen Rasmussen

Since Steffen was a kid, seeing people who were lonely, drunk or having a difficult time in the streets affected him deeply. He has been politically active since the age of 15, and after travelling the West Bank of Palestine and walking the Camino, the work with marginalised and homeless people has become important to him. In 2013, Steffen chose to be homeless for 6 months while spending all his time with the marginalised people in Aarhus. While doing this, he built ‘Fundamentet’ (the Foundation), an organization aiming to help these people. “Being homeless allowed me to spend all my time on creating the organisation ‘Fundamentet’. As I spent all my time on this, I could not have a regular job, thus no income to spend on renting a house. At the same time, it allowed me to get closer to the environment I studied. To understand, learn and feel that world even more. Sitting at the homes for homeless people every day became a learning opportunity.” In 2018, he passed on the organisation to other people and started Centre for Social Rethinking to do more research on why our current efforts to help marginalised people don’t seem to resolve the issues these people face.

Vana Orfanou

Vana Orfanou holds a PhD in Archaeological Science from UCL, London. She has worked as a researcher at the Louvre Museum, Aarhus University and from September onwards at UCD in Dublin. She has worked with a range of past cultures including the Vikings, Romans, Greeks and Persians. In a society facing major changes, Vana Orfanou argues that using knowledge about the past in the right way can be a sustainable way to create a more empathic society now and in the future. “I argue that the past is most useful to us today because it offers a great mental exercise of relating to people that are not our friends and family, of embracing cultural diversity through the only form of time-travel available to us today.”