Theme: Youth and the Future

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).

King's College
Strand
London, London, City of, WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

Claire Harvey Craig

Claire Harvey Craig leads the UK Government Office for Science, supporting the Chief Scientific Adviser in providing science and engineering advice to the Prime Minister and Cabinet. They work in everything from emergencies such as Ebola, to horizon scanning the future of financial services in the face of big data and smart analytics. She was awarded a CBE for developing Foresight, the UK’s science-based futures programme, which has tackled long term issues such as flood risk and human enhancement, and is currently looking at the challenges and opportunities of the ageing society out to 2040, and at UK cities out to 2065. Originally a geophysicist, Claire is fascinated by how science forms our views of the world and the decisions we take, both as individuals and as societies. She consumes a lot of science fact and science fiction.

Johan Bävman

Johan Bävman is a freelance photographer based in Malmö, a town in the southern parts of Sweden, close to Copenhagen. He works by combining his own long term projects with freelance assignments from different clients world wide. Most recently, he received a lot of attention for his project “Swedish Dads” telling the unique story of Swedish dads and paternity leave in Sweden. In years 2008-2011 he worked as a staff photographer at Sydsvenskan, one of the largest newspapers in Sweden. Bävman has also won several awards, including the UNICEF Photo Award, World Press Photo, POY, NPPA, Sony Award and Picture of the Year in Sweden. Until early this spring, he was also a member of Moment Agency and Institute.

Louise Archer

Louise Archer is Professor of Sociology of Education in the Department of Education and Professional Studies at King's College London. Her research focusses on educational identities and inequalities, particularly in relation to ethnicity, gender and social class. She has authored numerous books and journal papers. She is currently the director of the ASPIRES/ ASPIRES2 research projects (ESRC funded national longitudinal studies of young people's science and career aspirations from age 10-19), the Enterprising Science project (a research and development project conducted in partnership with the Science Museum and BP, engaging disadvantaged young people with science) and the Youth Equity & Pathways in ISL project (a Wellcome Trust, Science Learning+ partnership project). Louise is also co-head of the Centre for Research in Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (CRESTEM) at KCL.

Mark Horowitz

Mark Horowitz is a trainee psychiatrist currently completing a PhD in the neuroscience of depression at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London, who has developed a passionate interest in climate change activism. Although he was a strong advocate of recycling to key domestic stakeholders from the age of seven, he later developed a severe case of environmental depression – marked by hopelessness, and helplessness. This condition, suffered by many in the UK, and around the world, arises from the overwhelming scale of the problem, the limits of personal behavioural change (recycling, changing light bulbs) and the complexity of the political process aimed to solve the problem. However, over the last couple of years, he has experienced a significant remission of his symptoms, largely due to the world-wide fossil fuel divestment movement. This movement has catalysed thousands of people around the world to shrug off their apathy and work towards a safer and healthier world.

Mischa Dohler

Mischa Dohler is full Professor in Wireless Communications at King’s College London and Head of the Centre for Telecommunications Research where he is designing 5th generation mobile phone systems along with the next generation internet. He is also co-founder and member of the Board of Directors of the smart city pioneer Worldsensing, Fellow and Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE, and Editor-in-Chief of the Transactions on Emerging Telecommunications Technologies. He acts as a policy, technology and entrepreneurship adviser, examples being Richard Branson’s Carbon War Room, House of Lords UK, UK Ministry BIS, EPSRC ICT Strategy Advisory Team, European Commission, ISO Smart City working group, and various start-ups. He is also an entrepreneur, angel investor, passionate pianist and fluent in 6 languages.

Mustafa Al-Bassam

Mustafa Al-Bassam is an undergraduate at King's College London in Computer Science. He gained notoriety in 2011 at the age of 16 for being a part of LulzSec, a computer hacking group responsible for a number of high profile attacks, including the compromise of data from FBI affiliates, Sony, Fox and NATO. As a result, he was legally banned from the Internet for almost two years as a condition of his bail. Mustafa has worked with Privacy International to analyse the destruction of computer equipment ordered by GCHQ, that held top secret material leaked from the NSA and GCHQ. Concerned about mass and corporate surveillance, he has advised human rights defenders around the world on protecting their data and communicating securely online. During the Jasmine Revolution he created a tool for Tunisian dissidents to defend themselves against government malware.

Vinay Nayak

Vinay is currently studying Politics at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, having graduated from Yale University where he majored in political science. His academic work focuses on how the Internet can be used to enhance citizen engagement in elections, government, and policymaking. Vinay was a digital staffer on the Obama 2012 re-election campaign where he helped to lead the campaign's national youth outreach efforts online from the campaign's Chicago headquarters. He has also worked on social media for a number of businesses, nonprofits, the White House, and the UK Labour Party. Committed to helping young people make their voices heard, Vinay has also taught a class on public speaking and rhetoric at a Chicago Public Charter School, and has won a national public speaking championship.