Theme: COUNTDOWN: We can change climate change

The University of Luxembourg will host a third (and very special) TEDx event in October 2020, in the context of TED’s COUNTDOWN initiative. We will broadcast 5 online evening sessions (6:30 PM - 8:00 PM) with original talks, talks from TED's COUNTDOWN event and original performances during the week of 12th-16th October 2020. See our detailed programme on our website.

University of Luxembourg
2 avenue de l'université
Esch sur Alzette, Luxembourg (fr), Luxemburg (de), 4365
Luxembourg

Alexander Metternich

Cultural Anthropologist & Archaeologist

Alex Metternich is a Director of Studies at the civic academy Europäische Akademie Otzenhausen in Saarland, Germany, where he organizes and runs international seminars and workshops on the various topic fields of sustainability.

ANASEA Project

Musicians

Hosted by the University of Luxembourg, ANASEA (Asia, North America, Africa, South America, Europe & Australia) project is aimed at musicians of all genres, and artists of all age, with a mission to preserve and revive global cultural legacy among the multi cultural community of Luxembourg. ANASEA engages musicians and artists through a series of periodic workshops in order to introduce them to worldwide cultural artistic heritages. ANASEA project is based on peer-to-peer learning approach whereby participants teach each other the arts and music from their countries and cultures.

András Kozma

Structural engineer

András Kozma is a structural engineer from Hungary specialised in steel-concrete composite structures. He recently finished his PhD studies at the University of Luxembourg. He found his purpose in promoting sustainable construction.

Anupam Sengupta

Professor of Biological Physics

Anupam Sengupta is an ATTRACT Fellow and Professor of Biological Physics at the University of Luxembourg. He directs a cross-disciplinary team of scientists working on emergent behaviour and functions in biological systems. Understanding how anthropogenic activities impact microorganisms, and tend to derail delicate biophysical processes, is at the heart of Anupam’s research. He is an enthusiastic educator and regularly makes time to interact with younger minds. For his contributions to science, Anupam has received multiple international recognitions, including his selection as Promising Young Scientist for the Future at the 2015 Lindau Meeting for Nobel Laureates.

Ariane König

Senior Researcher in Sustainability Science

Ariane König is a Senior Researcher at the University of Luxembourg, where she and her team are engaged in research projects to facilitate and learn from social processes with experts and stakeholders to address complex sustainability challenges in our interconnected water and food systems in practice. She also built and coordinates an innovative study programme in ‘Sustainability and Social Innovation’ that is open to students and professionals. Initially König was trained as a genetic engineer at the University of Cambridge, and first worked on risk regulation for a leading multinational life science corporation. Thereafter she joined the universities of Harvard and Oxford, where she conducted research and taught postgraduate and executive training courses on the governance of new technologies and risk, with a focus on agricultural food production.

Christie Anne Baggendorff

Winner of the Writing Contest

Christie Anne Baggendorff is a 17 year old student who took part in the TEDxUniversityofLuxembourg 2020 "young writers contest" and won the first prize in the 13-20 years old category.

Frédéric Brochier

Senior Project Manager - Territories & Sustainable Development

Frédéric Brochier has more than 20 years of work experience in the fields of the environment, climate change and sustainable development. Currently working as a sustainability project manager at IMS, his mission is to mobilize economic players around the territorial synergies, climate mitigation and sustainable energy challenges to bring about organizational changes.

Jane Wilkinson

Sustainable Finance Expert

ane has a long career in the finance sector in London, then here in Luxembourg, mostly with KPMG and more recently at the Luxembourg Stock Exchange. She has spent her career working with financial companies as their auditor and since the early 2000s has particularly focused on sustainable finance and sustainability. She is now a successful independent director, bringing the combination of her financial and sustainability expertise, to the board rooms of companies that wish to embrace the future we all wish to have! Jane is extremely pleased to be teaching part of the University of Luxembourg’s new Sustainable Finance track in the Finance & Economics Masters programme.

Jesal Doshi

Medical equipment provider

Jesal has worked in private equity across several countries, having lived and invested in India, South East Asia, the US and Europe. He moved to Luxembourg to work with B Medical Systems as Deputy CEO, finding real purpose in the company’s mission to save lives using reliable and innovative technology the world over.

Luca Macchi

Project Manager - Territories & Sustainable Development

Luca Macchi is a Project Manager at IMS (Inspire More Sustainability) Luxembourg for more than 2 years. After a degree of Physical and Human Geography of the University of Strasbourg in 2016, he achieved the Master’s degree of Geography and Spatial Planning at the University of Luxembourg in 2018 with research interests around the subjects of Spatial Planning, Cartography, Mobility and Sustainability Practices. He will be presenting to you how Corporate Gardening will turn your workplace to a well-being hub and mitigate climate change at the same time.

Ognyan ‘Flame’ Darinov

Poet

Ognyan ‘Flame’ Darinov (aged 21) is an English Studies graduate at the University of Luxembourg, originally from Sofia, Bulgaria. Even though he’s making the transition from literature to linguistics, his time at the Bachelor en Cultures Européennes has made him passionate for all types of humanities studies. The questions he often asks are about the multiplicity of the human condition and experience, and about how we can use literature, culture and art to transmit these ideas.

Phillip Dale

Professor in Physics

Phil Dale is a Professor at the University of Luxembourg who investigates with his team for the last fifteen years how to better convert sunshine into electrical energy. He is a keen cyclist, loves listening to books, cooking, surfing, walking, being with his family, and most recently growing his garden during lockdown.

Rachel Reckinger

Food sociologist and anthropologist

Rachel Reckinger is a food sociologist and anthropologist at the University of Luxembourg and head of the research project Sustainable Food Practices, contributing to current debates on food sovereignty, biodiversity degradation, limits to growth, inequity, the search for more sustainable ways of production, consumption and governance – as well as policy coherence tackling them –, all requiring a dedicated response from the social sciences. She is also taking part in active policy work with the co-creation of a Food Policy Council for Luxembourg, as a multi-stakeholder discussion and negotiation group for more resilient food system alternatives, and holds a mandate in Luxembourg’s Conseil Supérieur pour un Développement Durable.

Rushank Bardolia

Social Entrepreneur

Rushank Bardolia is a Social Entrepreneur from Luxembourg. He has established a palm oil processing factory in Ghana that is built on sustainable practices. He was born in Mumbai, India, where he did his Bachelors of Telecommunication Engineering. Thereafter, he completed his Masters 1 at Toulouse School of Economics and Masters of Financial Economics at University of Luxembourg. He has held multiple jobs as a banker in Luxembourg but traveling and exploring the world has been his passion that has already taken him to more than 70 countries! More importantly, he is passionate and deeply invested in sustainability and protecting the environment. We have one planet and protecting it should be a paramount responsibility for all of us!

Samyukta SIVASHANKAR

Winner of the Writing Contest

Samyukta SIVASHANKAR is a 9 year old student who took part in the TEDxUniversityofLuxembourg 2020 "young writers contest" and won the first prize in the 9-12 years old category.

Tara Mancini

Entrepreneur

In high school, I realized our resources were going to run out and I wanted to do something about it. In college I learnt about atmospheric chemical cycles, that breathing is something we all would like to continue to do, and CO2 concentrations were headed in the wrong direction. I worked a day job in a laboratory, so I could fund doing my own experiments on the weekends. Then formed a company and applied for grants. One day, a person overheard my story and said, “But you don’t have a PhD, what gives you the right to start a laboratory?

Varan Pathmanathan

Entrepreneur

Varan Pathmanathan is CEO and co-founder of make!mpact. He is working in the field of impact investing, because he wants to contribute towards making the world a better place and help other people do the same.