Theme: Rise & Fall

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).

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Hereplein 73
Groningen, Groningen, 9711gd
Netherlands

André Faaij

Academic Director Energy Academy Europe and Distinguished Professor Energy System Analysis at University of Groningen

André Faaij is appointed as Academic Director Energy Academy Europe and Distinguished Professor Energy System Analysis at University of Groningen. His research covers, amongst others, bio-based economy, carbon capture and storage, renewable energy, alternative transport fuels, energy system and etc.

Dorina-Maria Buda

Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the University of Groningen and Professor of Tourism at Leeds Beckett University

Dr Dorina Maria Buda is a Rosalind Franklin Fellow at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, and a Professor of Tourism at Leeds Beckett University in England. Dorina is the author of Affective Tourism: Dark Routes in Conflict, a research monograph in which she offers a new way of theorising tourism encounters bringing together and critically examining three areas of scholarship: tourism; emotions and affects; conflict and peace studies. Her research interests revolve around interconnections between tourism, danger and sociopolitical conflicts; emotions, affects, feelings and senses; psychoanalysis; dark tourism, danger-zone tourism. Dorina completed her doctoral research in the Geography and Tourism Programmes at the University of Waikato, Aotearoa New Zealand with a thesis on Danger-zone tourism: Emotional performances in Jordan and Palestine. Dorina grew up in post/communist Romania, lived, worked and studied in about 8 countries.

Malvina Nissim

Lecturer in Computational Linguistics at the University of Groningen

Malvina Nissim is a Lecturer in Computational Linguistics at the University of Groningen. Her field of research is concerned with developing computational models for a variety of linguistic phenomena. Within this field, she is particularly interested in how, and to what extent, machines can be taught to recognise and interpret specific aspects of language that rely on knowledge that goes well beyond the text itself. She is Lecturer of the Year 2016.

Mariano Mendez

Professor at the University of Groningen in the field of Astronomy & Astrophysics

Mariano Mendez is a Professor of High Energy Astrophysics at the University of Groningen. He has published more than 300 scientific papers in prestigious international journals, and has given a large number of scientific and popular talks all over the world. Prof. Mendez is an amateur magician, and he uses magic (and psychological) tricks to improve the quality of his lectures.

Ryan Wittingslow

Assistant professor in humanities at the University of Groningen

Ryan Wittingslow is assistant professor in humanities at the University of Groningen. Born in Sydney, Australia, and raised in Sydney, Singapore, Tokyo, and London, he completed his Ph.D. in art history & philosophy through the University of Sydney in 2014. Before his current appointment he served as the founding editor of WE ARE A•STAR, an online magazine for Indigenous and financially disadvantaged high school students. He also experienced moderate success as a freelance journalist, and found himself published in all kinds of interesting places. Reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of his education, his scholarship sits in the rather fun intersection of history of philosophy, art history, and science & technology studies.

Todd Weir

Professor of History of Christianity and Modern Culture at the University of Groningen

Todd Weir is Professor of History of Christianity and Modern Culture at the University of Groningen. His research revolves around the relationship between religion and secularism. In 2014 he published a study on Secularism and Religion in Nineteenth Century Germany: The Rise of the Fourth Confession with Cambridge University Press. Todd is now researching the transnational history of the term worldview/Weltanschauung from 1790 to the present.