Theme: Life in the Tropics

James Cook University, having university campuses in Cairns, Townsville and Singapore, prides itself on being the University of the Tropics. In line with that, our event is respectively themed ‘LIFE IN THE TROPICS’. Being experts in their respective fields, our speakers will be sharing their knowledge, experiences, and unique views pertinent to those fields. These fields include Global Warming, Cinematography, Ecology, Employability, Parasitology, and venturing into the Life of Women in the tropics.

James Cook University Singapore
600 Upper Thomson Road
Singapore, 574421
Singapore

Senthu Jeyaraj

Dr. Senthu Jeyaraj is an Organizational Psychologist and the founder of OrgCognisance - a company dedicated to developing talent in organizations. Dr. Jeyaraj moved to Singapore in 2001 from Perth, Australia. During her time in Singapore she has gained extensive experience in research, teaching and consultancy. Her research experience began with her accepting a fully sponsored scholarship from the National University of Singapore to do her Masters in Psychology. In 2007, she commenced her doctorate under the tutelage of Emeritus Professor Frank Crowther and Associate Professor Dorothy Andrews from the Leadership Research Institute (University of Southern Queensland). She was awarded her doctorate in 2011 and was honored with a national award from the Australian Commonwealth of Educational Leaders for her outstanding research on a cognitive dimension to the concept of organizational alignment. Her doctorate research has recently been published into a book. Dr. Jeyaraj also works as an academic staff in Psychology at James Cook University. Her dedication and commitment to student engagement and development at the university has been recognized with the award of Best Lecturer of the Year in 2012. She has also received research awards such as People’s Choice (2011) and Early Career Researcher (2011) from James Cook University. On the TEDxJCUS stage she will speak about a trend currently going on in Asia and the tropics, and with that the big question - who do you think is actually talented and not?

Pia Bruce

Before joining the Singapore Committee for UN Women as Executive Director, Pia Bruce, a former management consultant and Harvard Kennedy School of Government graduate, was on the founding team of Aidha (A business school for migrant domestic workers in Singapore). The Singapore Committee for UN Women is a non-profit organization working towards women's empowerment and has been conducting public awareness campaigns on the trafficking of women and girls since early 2004 and has reached out to over 50,000 people through a range of initiatives including conferences, school and public talks, media outreach, local community action activities, bloggers engagement, social media activities and many others. (www.unwomen-nc.org.sg). Pia has also been involved in the design and development of an e-learning resources platform for the US K-12 school community, and has multi-country experience in corporate change management, curriculum development and train-the-trainer course implementation. On the TEDxJCUS stage Pia will speak about half of the population living in the tropics, namely all the women!

Ian Atkinson

Ian Atkinson is a Tropical Leader and Director of the eResearch Centre at James Cook University. His PhD studies were in chemical physics but nearly 20 years ago moved from experimental science into computational chemistry and high-performance computing. Over the past decade the rapid expansion of the Internet, mass data storage and computing has impacted every area of research and academic activity. As Director of the JCU eResearch Centre he has the privilege of working with researchers to apply new and ever changing ICT tools and methods to their research and amplifying their impacts. He is also actively involved in researching how new systems and software that connect the physical and virtual worlds, particularly focusing on environmental monitoring with sensor networks. He has supervised numerous postgraduate students and has over 100 publications. At TEDxJCUS he will speak about his extensive work and what he calls the tropical data hub!

Nicholas Smith

Nick Smith is a tropical leader and professor of molecular cell biology at James Cook University, Australia. He received his PhD in parasitology from the Australian National University in 1988 and has studied parasites ever since at the Australian National University, the University of Zurich, the Queensland Institute of Medical Research, the the University of Technology, Sydney and, since 2011, at James Cook University. He is fascinated by these ingenious creatures and devoted to studying how parasites and their hosts interact with each other. The ultimate goal of this research is to discover new vaccines to prevent transmission of parasites. Nick was made a Fellow of the Australian Society for Parasitology in 2008 in recognition of his contributions to research, education and enhancing the career development of young scientists. At TEDxJCUS he will reveal to us the secret life of these tiny but harmful creatures called parasites!

Olzhas Zhiyenkulov

Heading Silver Assets Pte Ltd based in Singapore as the Managing Director, Olzhas Zhiyenkulov, has graduated from Cass Business School, City University, London. He has a BSc (Hons) Management. Besides a number of academic awards, he is also a scholar of the “Bolashak” scholarship of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan. He has memberships in the Online Trading Academy-Singapore, Mastermind Community (Only 300 worldwide), CFA Singapore, Singapore Business Federation and International Academy of Information (IAI) in Kazakhstan. Olzhas expertise lies in International Relations and Negotiations with experiences gained from being a financial analyst/negotiator in one of the top brokerage houses in Kazakhstan, Managing Director of International Relations of JSC Unicorn IFC of Almaty, Kazakhstan, as SROI model designer in Cruse Bereavement Care of London and as Managing Director/ Chief Negotiator of Silver Assets Pte. Ltd, Singapore. On the TEDx stage he will bring to our attention how alternative energy can change the life in tropics and why it is the best investment in the world!

Gabrielle Kelly

Born in Ireland, educated in England with a BA in American Studies from the University of Sussex and an extensive filmmaking career in the USA, Gabrielle Kelly is a screenwriter and producer of diverse content for the global marketplace who also teaches in international labs and film programs. She is the recipient of two Fulbright Awards. Following a career in book publishing in New York, she worked with NY based director Sidney Lumet and screenwriter/producer Jay Presson Allen on films such as Daniel, Prince of the City, Deathtrap, The Verdict and others. Additional projects developed included work with Andy Warhol's Factory on an audio-animatronic show From A to Z and Back Again, musical La Cages aux Folles with Mike Nichols and scripts for Malcolm McClaren and CBS Theatrical Films. In Hollywood she ran producer Robert Evans’ company at Paramount working in development and production on a slate of diverse projects and worked as executive and producer with such companies as HBO, Fields Hellman, Eddie Murphy Productions and Warner Bros. Awards: one in screenwriting at TNUA, Taiwan and the second as writer/mentor in the screenwriting /producing Lab for the ASEAN Independent Cinema Project in the Philippines. Gabrielle's TEDxJCUS speech will focus on global storytelling and the international film producing markets; Asiawood vs. Hollywood - who will dominate the global marketplace?