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).

University of Saskatchewan
107 Wiggins Rd
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, S7N 5E5
Canada

Akshara Dash

Human Experience Designer

Akshara Dash is a product designer and an Interactive Systems Design student at the University of Saskatchewan (USask). At 22, she is the youngest TEDxUniversityofSaskatchewan 2024 speaker. Dash found her calling for digital product design at 19 when she started the first user experience design student club in USask's Department of Computer Science, connecting and educating students and professionals in the field. Across her time at USask, Dash has won over $16,000 in scholarships and hackathons, including the Zu Award for Women in Technology and Community Service and the Nasser Family Award. She is a strong advocate for inclusive and accessible design, and has worked on several initiatives to advance these causes including a project with the Saskatchewan Poverty Reduction Partnership to re-imagine public washrooms in Saskatoon. Upon graduation, Dash aims to work as a product designer and to continue learning new things about herself and the world around her every day.

Curtis J. Pozniak

Director, Crop Development Centre

Dr. Curtis Pozniak (PhD) is a professor and wheat breeder at the University of Saskatchewan’s (USask) Crop Development Centre (CDC), where he has been a faculty member since 2002. In July 2020, he was appointed Director of the CDC. He is a leader in the application of genomic technologies to wheat breeding and has published over 170 manuscripts in this area. In 2010, Pozniak was named the Most Outstanding Young Researcher at USask, and was bestowed the honor of Outstanding Agronomist by the Canadian Society of Agronomy. He received an Award of Innovation from the City of Saskatoon in 2014, the College of Agriculture Research Excellence Award in 2015 and the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium Leadership Award in 2019. He has been named one of Canada’s Top 20 Seed Industry Influencers, and in 2023, he received the prestigious Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for service to agricultural science.

Indiana Best

Medical Student

Indiana Best is a proud Métis woman and a second-year medical student in the University of Saskatchewan (USask) College of Medicine. Born and raised in Alberta, she completed her undergraduate degree in health sciences at the University of Calgary before relocating to Saskatoon to pursue her Master of Public Health. Her keen interests in population health and working alongside the Métis community led her to pursue research that integrated Métis culture within addictions treatment programming. Indiana aims to integrate her understanding of patient-centered care and Indigenous health perspectives into her medical school education. She is motivated to bridge the gap between Western medicine and Indigenous traditions, recognizing the profound importance of cultural inclusivity in healthcare.

Linda Chelico

Professor, Microbiology

Dr. Linda Chelico (PhD) is a professor in the Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology. Her research spans biochemistry, virology, and cancer biology. She earned her PhD in 2004 from the University of Saskatchewan (USask), specializing in the study of DNA repair in fungi. It was then that Chelico became amazed at the potential of mutations in DNA for an organism’s adaptability. Chelico then completed postdoctoral training at the University of Southern California with Myron F. Goodman, who studies multiple mutation-inducing polymerases in bacteria. While she thought she would work on that topic, instead she worked on a new protein family that was discovered shortly before her arrival. Chelico brought this expertise to USask in 2009. The protein family her lab studies purposefully induces mutations as part of the immune response in humans. Chelico was the first to purify and characterize multiple proteins from this newly discovered family.

Linzi Williamson

Professor, Psychology and Health Studies

As a social psychologist, anthrozoologist, program evaluator, and co-founder of the Pawsitive Connections Lab, Dr. Linzi Williamson (PhD, CE) is dedicated to helping people improve their relationships with humans and animals. She is the Principal Investigator of a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Patient-Oriented Research project entitled “Supporting Canadian Veterans with Service Dogs” which is co-led by a committee of patient partners, including veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder, service dog trainers, and experts on animal-human interactions. The goal of this research is to highlight the social value of service dogs for veterans, educate the public on interacting with service dog teams, and develop ways to optimize the animal-human bond. Linzi received a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal for her ongoing work with AUDEAMUS Service Dogs. Never in her wildest dreams did Linzi imagine blending her love of research and dogs, but somehow, it has all come together.

Markus Brinkmann

Director, Toxicology Centre

Dr. Markus Brinkmann (PhD) is an associate professor and the Centennial Enhancement Chair in Mechanistic Environmental Toxicology in the School of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Saskatchewan (USask), the director of the university’s world-renowned Toxicology Centre, and a member of the Global Institute for Water Security. He is an award-winning toxicologist whose academic journey has focused on the exploration of environmental contaminants, including those that are discharged through municipal wastewater, and their impacts on environmental and human health. Brinkmann earned his PhD from Aachen University in Germany and came to USask in 2016 as a Banting Postdoctoral Fellow. Since receiving his first academic appointment at USask in 2018, he has coordinated several large-scale interdisciplinary and international collaborations, many of which focused on urban water systems.

Michael C. Levin

Saskatchewan Multiple Sclerosis Clinical Research Chair

Dr. Michael C. Levin (MD) is the Saskatchewan Multiple Sclerosis (MS) Clinical Research Chair and Professor of Neurology at the University of Saskatchewan (USask) College of Medicine. An MS specialist and neuroscientist, Levin has been caring for persons living with MS and conducting research into the cause and treatments for MS for most of his career. At the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, he was professor, Chief of the Neurology Service at the Memphis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, leading the MS clinic and performed research on RNA binding proteins in MS. His work has been published in top journals including The New England Journal of Medicine, Nature Medicine, Annals of Neurology, Glia, and Journal of Neuroscience Research. Dr. Levin and his team have received more than 100 awards for academic excellence. He is editor of the Neurology Section of the Merck Manual, on the Medical Advisory Committee of MS Canada and honored as one of the ‘Best Doctors in America’.

Rachel Loewen Walker

Assistant Professor, Gender Studies and Human Rights

Dr. Rachel Loewen Walker (PhD) (she/her) is an assistant professor and the program chair of the Women's and Gender Studies program, in Political Studies at the University of Saskatchewan (USask). She also teaches on the topics of equity, diversity, and human rights in the College of Law. Prior to this she was the Executive Director of OUTSaskatoon, a 2SLGBTQ+ community centre for almost seven years where she started Pride Home, a long-term, 2SLGBTQ+ group home and worked with 2SLGBTQ+ leaders across Canada to develop The Enchanté Network, a national organization that aims to build the capacity and reach of Two Spirit and LGBTQ Centres country-wide. Loewen Walker's work in the lab and other spaces focuses on queer theory, feminist theory, human rights and social justice, as well as non-profit leadership and governance, policy analysis, and organizational theory.

Saurabh Biswas

Living Skies Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Saurabh Biswas (PhD) is a sustainability scientist and energy systems engineer studying human well-being, sustainable development, and infrastructure systems. He has collaborated with community organizations, grassroots entrepreneurs, university partners and international development agencies in seven countries to investigate interlinkages of renewable energy and local sustainable development. Saurabh is currently a Living Skies Postdoctoral Fellow with the Community Appropriate Sustainable Energy Security (CASES) initiative at the University of Saskatchewan (USask). Earlier, he was a scientist at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, conducting research on just and equitable energy transitions for the US Department of Energy. Biswas works on projects ranging from sustainable energy infrastructures in cities, to energy security and local sustainable development in rural and indigenous communities.