Theme: Breaking Barriers

Our second-annual TEDxMSState conference will host speakers from diverse disciplines to inspire new ideas and spark innovative discussion that has the power to break barriers!

Union Dawghouse
98 Lee Blvd
First Floor
Mississippi State, Mississippi, 39762
United States

Angelle Tanner

Associate Professor at Mississippi State University in the Physics and Astronomy Department

Dr. Angelle Tanner is an Associate Professor at Mississippi State University in the Physics and Astronomy Department. She is the current Director of the MSU Howell Observatory and is responsible for the online Starchive database. Her research involves exoplanet surveys utilizing infrared radial velocities, astrometry, photometry, infrared excess and direct imaging. Dr. Tanner was a member of the NASA Kepler Participating Scientists program and is a Kavli Fellow. She earned her BS degree from the University of Arizona and her PhD from UCLA. As a postdoc she worked on exoplanet projects at Caltech, the Jet Propulsion Lab and Georgia State University. One day she hopes her research will not only lead to the discovery of another potentially habitable planet around another star but also the discovery of signs of life on that planet.

Brett Hill

Mindfulness Instructor, Speaker, and Interpersonal Communication Specialist

Brett Hill is a professional communicator and storyteller. He’s a published author, speaker, and trainer in the technical world for companies like Microsoft and Adobe and has a shadow career speaking, consulting and writing about mindfulness, communication, and group dynamics. With a degree in interpersonal communication, he sought to learn from the best of the best mindfulness-based therapists, meditation guides, and group leaders. Now, he has distilled and refactored his findings into a set of easy to apply practices that are high impact, easy to learn, relevant and resonant. He teaches a class on Mindfulness and Presence in Communications in the Seattle area and is authoring a book by the same name expected in Spring 2020.

Michael Seymour

Director of Mississippi State University's Center for Teaching and Learning and Professor of Landscape Architecture

Michael W. Seymour is a Professor in the Department of Landscape Architecture at Mississippi State University where he teaches landscape history, urban and community planning and planting design. He has an undergraduate degree in fine art from Centenary College of Louisiana and a Master’s degree in Landscape Architecture from Louisiana State University. He is a licensed landscape architect and has prior professional experience as the Director of an Arts District and as a Project Manager in private practice at Lucido and Associates in Stuart, Florida. He has been the recipient of a number of teaching awards and is a Grisham Master Teacher. He currently serves as Acting Director of MSU’s Center for Teaching and Learning, where he helps to coordinate programs and professional development for faculty. His research interests include active living, landscape history and the scholarship of teaching and learning.

Nandita Gupta

Graduate Student in Human Computer Interaction

An MSU alumna and Bagley College of Engineering Hall of Fame inductee, Nandita is passionate about accessibility and design of inclusive technology and is actively involved in academic research at Georgia Institute of Technology, where she is pursuing her Master’s in Human Computer Interaction. Prior to this, she worked with Georgia-Pacific, LLC as a process controls engineer where she worked on human-machine interface systems. She was a presenter at the International Society of Automation's Process Controls conference, where she presented her paper on human machine interfaces. She spoke at Grace Hopper Celebration in 2018 about Women in Manufacturing, and the various challenges faced by them in the career track; in 2019, she spoke on a panel that discussed mental health at work. She was named Influential Women of Manufacturing 2019 by Putman Media.

Rani Sullivan

Professor of Aerospace Engineering at MSU

Rani Warsi Sullivan is a Professor of Aerospace Engineering at Mississippi State University (MSU) and the holder of the Richard H. Johnson Endowed Chair. Dr. Sullivan is the Director of the High Performance Composites Materials Laboratory. She has teaching and research interests in the areas of engineering education, solid mechanics, and the testing and analysis of aerospace composite materials and structures. She is the founder and adviser for the Women of Aerospace student organization at MSU. Dr. Sullivan is an Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics. She is the recipient of the 2019 Hermann Oberth Award and the 2014 SAE International Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award. Dr. Sullivan is a member of the MSU Bagley College of Engineering Academy of Distinguished Teachers.

Wallace Murphree

Professor Emeritus, Mississippi State University Department of Philosophy and Religion

Wallace Murphree received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from Vanderbilt University, and was the first philosophy professor hired to the new Department of Philosophy and Religion at Mississippi State in 1967. He advanced through the professorial ranks in his 34-year career, including a 7-year stint as Department Head, and he received four university-wide teaching awards along the way. He has enjoyed Professor Emeritus standing since he retired in 2001, and continues to have a special interest in classical logic and philosophy of religion.