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).

101 Zellerbach Hall
Berkeley, California, 94720
United States

AFX Dance Company

AFX Dance is a dance group founded by Ping Quach, Geoffrey Chen, and Rosemary Hua in Fall 2011 to give dancers an opportunity to learn about and participate in dance culture, continuously build our community, and positively impact those around us through that process. Our name AFX reflects our three pillars—Aspirations, Family, Experience—and our philosophy of creating a family environment for dancers to build up the confidence and support to reach new heights. With a dance “Company” (competitive/advanced) and “General” (introductory/intermediate) membership, we strive to provide our dancers and leaders with new, fulfilling experiences that will empower them to dive deeper into dance culture; pass it on to the greater community along with our philosophies and values of growth, community, and support; and hold each other accountable in uplifting and amplifying the voices, lives, and experiences of those who have made all of these art forms and experiences possible in the first place.

Alexandr Wang

Alexandr Wang founded Scale while at MIT - studying mathematics and computer science, he discovered the potential of AI and decided to start a company to help customers build long-term AI strategies by providing the highest quality AI data and tools. Prior to enrolling at MIT, Alex worked at Quora and Addepar where he noticed the inefficiencies of developing AI infrastructure. He recognized that he could accelerate companies’ abilities to deploy AI by combining a machine learning-powered data labeling system with human insight to ensure models are trained on high-quality, trusted datasets. In four years and under Alex's leadership, Scale AI went from a data labeling startup to a platform providing AI infrastructure for any business looking to accelerate their AI strategy. The company has grown to a $7bn valuation, serving hundreds of customers across multiple industries including clients such as Instacart, Brex, OpenAI, Toyota, Etsy, U.S. Army and Samsung.

Ballet Folklorico Reflejos De Mexico

Ballet Folklorico Reflejos de Mexico, referred to as “Reflejos”, is a Mexican folklorico dance group that promotes cultural diversity at UC Berkeley and in the greater San Francisco/Bay area. Our hope is to educate the university and the community about the Mexican culture through music, art, and dance. We are one of only a handful of Latinx/Chicanx performing groups on campus. We require no experience, so anyone interested is free to join.

Brian Swimme

Brian Thomas Swimme is Director of the Third Story at Human Energy, a nonprofit public benefit organization, and professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program. Swimme did his doctoral work in gravitational dynamics in the Department of Mathematics at the University of Oregon. His published work includes the popular YouTube video series, "The Story of the Noosphere," written with Monica DeRaspe-Bolles, The Universe is a Green Dragon, The Universe Story written with Thomas Berry, The Hidden Heart of the Cosmos, and The Journey of the Universe written with Mary Evelyn Tucker. Swimme teamed with Tucker and David Kennard to produce "Journey of the Universe," an Emmy-winning film released in 2011.

Call Me Ace

Ace Patterson, also known as Call Me Ace, is a Billboard-charting hip-hop artist, music tech professional and creative entrepreneur who challenges the status quo. His music covers a myriad of sociocultural topics drawn from his own life experiences, including: the need for diversity and equity in the workplace, mental health struggles, the first-generation immigrant’s dilemma, the challenges of building generational wealth, persevering through intense adversity, and more. Call Me Ace released his debut album, Airplane Mode (2019), which debuted #3 on the iTunes Top 40 US Hip-Hop Album and #50 on the Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop Album Sales charts. In June 2020, Ace released Working From Home: Extended and donated 100% of the proceeds (over $10,000) towards combating the criminalization of Black and Brown communities in the USA. Call Me Ace’s sophomore album, Out Of Office (2021), was released with high praise, leading Ace to be on Symphonic’s “20 Black Artists Who Are On the Rise in 2021” list. In April 2021, Call Me Ace also became a Top 10 semi-finalist in BET Music’s BET AmpliFind competition.

Celli @ Berkeley

Celli@Berkeley was created one night in 2012 after the cellists of the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra realized that the only thing better than one cello was many, many cellos. Composed of eleven undergraduate students studying a variety of academic disciplines (including political science, music, sociology, biology, economics, and engineering), Celli is united by a desire to express the possibilities of the cello. We love performing and sharing music ranging from classical to pop, not only in concert halls but also outdoors - by the Campanile, in art galleries and cafes, at marathons or flea markets, and on the streets of Berkeley!

Cole Cuchna

Cole Cuchna is a lifelong musician that began performing in bands as a teenager, eventually dropping out of college to pursue a music career full time. A few albums and tours later, Cole grew tired of sleeping on floors and eating fast food, and returned to college to study classical composition at the School of Music at Sacramento State University, graduating with honors in 2013. With no clear career path in music, Cole created Dissect, a podcast that fused his teenage love for contemporary music with the academic analysis skills he learned in college. Each season analyzes the music, lyrics, and meaning of a single album, with each episode dedicated to a single song. Cole wrote, recorded, and edited episodes by himself at night while working a full time job. After two seasons publishing independently, Cole joined Spotify in 2018 and has since produced Dissect full time, fulfilling his lifelong dream of making a living doing what he loves. Dissect was named a Top Podcast in 2018 by The New York Times, Time, and The Guardian, Podcast of the Year by Quartz, and has been featured in The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Billboard, Rolling Stone, Forbes, and others.

Coss Marte

In 2009, Coss Marte was sent to jail as the ringleader of a multi-million dollar drug operation. He was also grossly overweight and warned by his physician that his current lifestyle, if left unchecked, would likely kill him. Faced with this grim prognosis, Coss started to get in shape using the tools he had -- his prison cell and his own body weight. Within six months he lost 70 pounds and replicated his successful formula of body weight exercises with 20 other inmates. Then he launched CONBODY, a prison style bootcamp that has gained over 70,000+ clients and has hired 50+ formerly incarcerated individuals to teach fitness classes. Since the launch of his company he’s been featured in over 200 major media outlets such as NBC, CNN, The New York Times, Men's Health and has been a 3 time TED Talk Speaker. He’s also won major pitch competitions such as Pitch for Good by TOM’s shoes and the YPO shark tank competition, which combined raised $1,000,000. Today Coss co-founded a non-profit organization called Second Chance Studios, which trains and helps employ formerly incarcerated individuals to become experts in audio engineering, video production, and podcasting.

Drawn to Scale

Drawn to Scale are a co-ed a cappella group founded at UC Berkeley in 2008. DtS is a diverse group of caring, dedicated, and talented students who come together to share in their passion for performing and love for one another. They continuously strive to maintain a high standard of musicality while bringing music to life in innovative and exciting ways.

Fei Tian Dancers

Fei Tian Dancers is the one & only Chinese dance team at UC Berkeley. As a Registered Student Organization, FTD supports dancers of all backgrounds in developing their Chinese dance skill & technique, enhancing their comprehension of traditional Chinese culture, & in spreading greater awareness of Chinese classical & ethnic cultures to the bigger community. FTD incorporates classical, ethnic, & modern Chinese dances into its repertoire through creating original choreography & learning traditional works, performing on campus & throughout the Bay Area.

Fyodor Urnov

Professor Fyodor Urnov is a Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and is a Director at its Innovative Genomics Institute, leading the Center for Translational Genomics and directing the Technology & Translation division. A pioneer in the field of therapeutic genome editing, Fyodor’s research focuses on advancing genome editing technology and pushing the boundaries of how it can be applied to solve real-world biomedical problems. In his work at Sangamo Therapeutics (2000–16), Fyodor and colleagues demonstrated the first use of native gene editing in human cells and coined the term “genome editing.” Fyodor then led collaborative teams to establish at-scale applications of genome editing for human somatic cell genetics and model animal and crop reverse genetics. Fyodor was a key member of the team that developed the first-in-human clinical application of genome editing (2009), and then led a from basic discovery to clinic an approach to use gene editing to treat the hemoglobinopathies, beta-thalassemia and sickle cell disease, that has resulted in sustained clinical benefit for over 70 individuals. At the IGI, Fyodor focuses on establishing turnkey editing of the human genome for clinical use and make CRISPR-based treatments for genetic disease broadly and equitably available on-demand. He works in collaborative teams to develop first-in-human applications of experimental CRISPR-based therapeutics for sickle cell disease, genetic disorders of the immune system, radiation injury, neuroinflammation, and neurological disorders.

Grace Gu

Professor Grace X. Gu is committed to building a better, more sustainable world through materials discovery and manufacturing. She leads the Gu Research Lab with the mission to create materials with customizable properties and functionalities across a wide spectrum of applications, including lightweight aerospace structures, resilient biomedical devices, and flexible bioinspired actuators. Gu and her team strive to facilitate a path for on-demand materials fabrication in this ever-expanding world through smarter, more sustainable, and accessible 3D-printing methods driven by artificial intelligence. Gu received her PhD and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Gu is the recipient of the Johnson & Johnson Women in STEM2D Scholars Award, Prytanean Faculty Award, ONR Young Investigator Award, DARPA Young Faculty Award, 3M Non-Tenured Faculty Award, and SME Outstanding Young Manufacturing Engineer Award. She was also named one of MIT Technology Review 35 Innovators under 35 in the category of Pioneer.

Ien Chi

Ien Chi is the Chief Creative of Mindset, a venture-backed wellness platform at DIVE Studios aimed at revealing the deeper humanity of celebrities like Eric Nam, Summer Walker, Tablo, Keshi, Aminé, WOOSUNG, etc - through more vulnerable audio-based storytelling. He is the former Creative Director of Jubilee, where he led the team to make some of YouTube's more popular shows such as Middle Ground, Spectrum, Odd Man Out, and Versus 1 - which have collectively garnered 1B+ views. In the past, Ien has also created works for NASA, Apple, Nike, The New York Times, NBC Asian America, and YouTube among others.

Julia Schaletzky

Dr. Julia Schaletzky is an interdisciplinary biomedical scientist and entrepreneur active both in the private sector and in academia. She is the Executive Director of the Center for Emerging and Neglected Diseases at the University of California, Berkeley, as well as of the Drug Discovery Center and Immunotherapy and Vaccine Research Initiative. After studying biochemistry in her native Germany, she moved to Harvard Medical School for graduate school. Interested in applied science, Dr. Schaletzky joined a biotechnology company, Cytokinetics, to develop new therapies for heart disease and neurodegenerative disorders, with several molecules in late-stage clinical trials. In her role at UC Berkeley, she focuses on interdisciplinary approaches and public/private partnership for the discovery and development of new therapies and tools, particularly for unmet medical needs. Dr. Schaletzky is also is a lecturer at the Haas School of Business, teaching Bioentrepreneurship, Access to Medicines and Drug Development for Neglected Diseases. She has received NIH-funded grants to support underrepresented minorities and women in STEM in the U.S. and runs a program in Uganda to build local research capacity. Dr. Schaletzky is broadly interested in global public health, health equity, and the governance of processes that end up influencing who gets care and who does not.

Laura Esserman

Dr. Laura Esserman, MD, MBA, is an internationally-recognized visionary in personalized medicine, revolutionizing breast cancer screening and treatment as the Director of the UCSF Carol Franc Buck Breast Care Center. Her work is devoted to developing new, more effective ways to care for and empower breast cancer patients during treatment, and she tailors treatments for individual patients using biology, personal preference, and constant feedback regarding outcomes of care. She led the creation of the University of California-wide Athena Breast Health Network, a learning system designed to integrate clinical care and research as it follows 150,000 women from screening through treatment and outcomes. The Athena Network launched the PCORI-funded Wisdom Study, which tests a personalized approach to breast cancer screening in 100,000 women. She is also a leader of the innovative I-SPY TRIAL model, designed to accelerate the identification and approval of effective new agents for women with high risk breast cancers. In 2020, she got FDA approval for an I-SPY Covid trial, designed to rapidly screen and confirm high impact treatments to reduce mortality and time on ventilators. Her breast cancer work spans a spectrum from basic science to public policy issues and the impact of both on the delivery of clinical care. She has published over 300 articles in peer-reviewed journals covering all aspects of breast health, including information systems, immunology, decision making, health policy, and the use of imaging. Her goal is to give patients better access to accurate information so that they become partners in their health care.

Nina Dalvuluri

Nina Davuluri is an acclaimed filmmaker, activist, actor, entrepreneur, and the first South Asian to win Miss America. She first gained international recognition by becoming the first South Asian to become Miss America in 2014. Her most recent venture combines the network she has cultivated, her love for advocacy, and disrupting global beauty standards by producing her new documentary: COMPLEXion. Raised in a culture sensitive to skin tones, Nina was hyper-aware of the skin lightening industry and how it dramatically influences beauty standards. In redefining beauty standards, she spearheaded a campaign against colorism. This led to her being invited by the CEO of L’oreal to join the L’oreal Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board, which she currently serves on. Nina has also worked with top technology companies such as Google, NASA, & Dell to further their women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) initiatives. Nina is humbled by her experiences and excited to continue her journey in the filmmaking, advocacy, & entertainment arenas. In her spare time, Nina enjoys walks in the West Village with her rescue pup, Dobby and moonlighting as SousChefNina experimenting, creating, and tasting fusion recipes!

Nina Davuluri

Nina Davuluri is an acclaimed filmmaker, activist, actor, entrepreneur, and the first South Asian to win Miss America. She first gained international recognition by becoming the first South Asian to become Miss America in 2014. Her most recent venture combines the network she has cultivated, her love for advocacy, and disrupting global beauty standards by producing her new documentary: COMPLEXion. Raised in a culture sensitive to skin tones, Nina was hyper-aware of the skin lightening industry and how it dramatically influences beauty standards. In redefining beauty standards, she spearheaded a campaign against colorism. This led to her being invited by the CEO of L’oreal to join the L’oreal Diversity & Inclusion Advisory Board, which she currently serves on. Nina has also worked with top technology companies such as Google, NASA, & Dell to further their women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) initiatives. Nina is humbled by her experiences and excited to continue her journey in the filmmaking, advocacy, & entertainment arenas. In her spare time, Nina enjoys walks in the West Village with her rescue pup, Dobby and moonlighting as SousChefNina experimenting, creating, and tasting fusion recipes!

Nyesha Arrington

Chef Nyesha Arrington is an award winning chef & culinary creative with an endless passion for the way ingredients and tradition that bring cultures together. Many chefs fuse Los Angeles’ diverse ethnic flavors in their dishes, but few embody the city’s unbridled creativity like Nyesha Arrington. Her first gigs — as sous chef to her Korean grandmother, “playing restaurant” on playdates and practicing fine arts — were early proof of her multidimensional talent. Arrington has worked under Joël Robuchon at L'Atelier and The Mansion. She was a fan favorite on Top Chef Season 12 and went on to win Knife Fight and Chef Hunter television competitions. Her grit and ingenuity has spawned lauded restaurant projects including past relics LEONA and Native. She is a steward of local produce, a food waste warrior, was named a past Zagat 30 under 30 honoree and above all, a culinary artist.

Poulomi Saha

Professor Poulomi Saha, a scholar of postcolonial studies, ethnic American literature, and critical theory, has research and teaching interests that span eastward and forward from the late 19th century decline of British colonial rule in the Indian Ocean through to the Pacific and the rise of American global power and domestic race relations in the 20th century. Her current book, "Fascination: America’s “Hindu” Cults" considers the allure and scandal of Indian spirituality in America. She writes and teaches about gender, sexuality, race, and empire.

Shamini Jain

Dr. Shamini Jain is a psychologist, scientist, and social entrepreneur. She is the founder and CEO of the Consciousness and Healing Initiative (CHI), a nonprofit collaborative accelerator that connects scientists, health practitioners, educators, and artists to help lead humanity to heal ourselves. Dr. Jain also serves as adjunct faculty at UC San Diego, where she is an active member of the UC San Diego Center for Integrative Medicine’s Research Committee. Her bestselling book, “Healing Ourselves: Biofield Science and the Future of Health, '' via Sounds True Publications, is available at bookstores worldwide.

Zuriel Oduwole

Zuriel Oduwole, often described as the world’s youngest filmmaker, is best known for her international development work and advocacy for girls’ education in Africa. At the age of 10, she was profiled in Forbes Magazine and was listed among 33 women who had changed the world by ELLE Magazine. In 2017, she was honored by the US Secretary of State for advocating against child marriages and for girls’ education. Oduwole has met with over 30 world leaders to address Global Social Development and Education Challenges. She has also spoken in 19 countries about the power of education and addressed COP23 delegates in Bonn, demonstrating the confluence between climate change and education. When she is not advocating for girls’ education, she teaches a filmmaking class for unemployed young women, a program she has now delivered in Ghana, Ethiopia, Mexico, Côte D'Ivoire, and Namibia. Zuriel always brings a simple but insightful youthful voice to major development causes, and she is an inspiration to millions of girls, women and families, around the world.