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).

Leach Theatre
103 Castleman Hall
400 W. 10th St.
Rolla, Missouri, 65409
United States

Alex Giger

Executive chef

Alex Giger, is the executive chef of Just a Taste in St. James, Missouri, where he strives to bring the best food to guests by working with the freshest food available from local farmers and producers. Giger, a native of Rolla, Missouri, has a passion for locally sourced, sustainable food. After working professionally in North Carolina and Seattle, he moved back to Rolla in 2014. When he isn't in the kitchen, you can find Giger tending his own garden, enjoying a local brewery or winery, or tinkering with old cars.

Charlotte Wiggins

Master gardener

Charlotte Wiggins is a master gardener and representative and contributing author of Missouri's Master Pollinator Steward program – which is the first program in the U.S. designed to explain the role pollinators play in our food chain. Wiggins is a University of Missouri advanced master gardener and serves on the Missouri State Beekeepers Association. She retired from careers with the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Navy, and currently lectures on how to plant for pollinators.

Chen Hou

Professor + theoretical physicist

Dr. Chen Hou, an associate professor of biological sciences at Missouri S&T, trained as a theoretical physicist and earned a Ph.D. in physics from the University of Missouri-Columbia in 2005. During his postdoctoral research, he decided to apply his theoretical modeling skills to tackle biological questions, and became an animal physiologist and ecologist. His research interests include aging and animal life history, and the energetics and behaviors of ants. Chen’s work has helped find that ant colonies can be virtually seen as single organisms because they share the same patterns of metabolism, growth, reproduction and lifespan.

Ed Koharik

Entrepreneur

Ed Koharik is a senior in economics at Missouri S&T from Belleville, Illinois. Koharik has worked in sales, software engineering and entrepreneurship. As an entrepreneur, he has co-founded an educational robotics company with a goal of increasing the accessibility of STEM education in underserved communities. He is also active in mentoring and consulting for other student-run startups. After graduating, Koharik plans to move to Madison, Wisconsin to pursue a career in healthcare information technology.

Joshua Morris

Renewable energy expert + business owner

Joshua Morris is the owner of Morris Renewable Energy, LLC, which specializes in off-grid energy and water solutions in the Missouri Ozarks. Morris also teaches environmental science for Drury University and owns and operates Cold Spring Farm near Rolla, Missouri, with his wife, Chiara, and their three children. He and his family have lived off-grid in a solar-powered, earth-sheltered home for 10 years, reviving abandoned farmland to create a sustainable farm. After serving in the U.S. Army, Morris earned a bachelor of arts degree in history from Columbus State University and a master of science degree in geological engineering from Missouri S&T in 2012.

Leneisa Parks

Storyteller + student success specialist

Leneisa Parks, student success specialist in graduate studies at Missouri S&T, has worked closely with ethnic minorities, international populations, low-socioeconomic status communities, and mentally and physically disabled youth throughout her career and world travels. Parks earned a degree in international business from Northwest Missouri State University and hopes to “inspire others to pick up the pen of intentionality and move from being passive readers to active writers in the novel of their lives.”

Michael (Mac) McLeon

Correctional officer + aquaponics expert

Sgt. Mac McLeon, correctional officer in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s Michael Unit in Anderson County, Texas, will speak about a correctional gardening program he helped develop. Mac teaches offenders coming from urban areas a new skill that can fuel a growing industry while saving taxpayers money. He is the first correctional officer to serve as a member of the American Correctional Association’s Sustainability Committee. Mac completed numerous aquaponics and hydroponic research courses and completed the Master Gardeners Program through Texas A&M’s Agrilife Extension.

Mike Schmidt

Safety engineer

Mike Schmidt, a lecturer of engineering management and systems engineering at Missouri S&T and founder of Bluefield Process Safety, which advises clients in the chemical process industries on process safety and training. Schmidt’s career began in 1977 with Union Carbide and he was impacted by the 1984 Bhopal tragedy that resulted in more than 10,000 deaths. It inspired him to work on process safety ever since. He earned a bachelor of science and master of science in chemical engineering from Missouri S&T in 1980 and 1985, respectively. He also earned an MBA from Babson College.

Tamar Makharashvili

Female engineer

Tamar Makharashvili is a Ph.D. student in electrical engineering at Missouri S&T from the Republic of Georgia. Makharashvili has interned with both Apple and Google and actively volunteers with robotics summer camps for high school students. Since her first semester in college at Tbilisi State University as an undergraduate, she has been passionate about electrical engineering. In her home country, engineering was assumed to be only for men, but that did not stop Makharashvili from exploring the field. She now has more than 10 years of experience as an engineer and believes anyone can do something amazing that they thought impossible.