Two Nigerian Inventors Among the Recipients of Next 25 TED Fellowships

Two Nigerians inventors are among the next 25 TED Fellows who will participate in TED2010.
Mubarak Abdullahi is an Aircraft-engineer who at 24, built a homemade helicopter out of old car and bike parts and Ndubuisi Ekekwe, an engineer, inventor, author and founder of the African Institution of Technology, an organization seeking to develop microelectronics in Africa.

The following is the full report on the 25 TED Fellowships.


14 Dec 2009 15:01 Africa/Lagos

TED Announces Recipients of Next 25 TED Fellowships

Newest TED Fellows to participate in the prestigious TED2010 Conference in Long Beach, CA

NEW YORK, Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Organizers of the TED Conference announced today the 25 TED Fellows who will participate in TED2010, TED's annual conference in Long Beach, CA, February 9 - 13, 2010. The TED2010 Fellows join the TED community as the most recent additions to the TED Fellows program, joining the TED, TEDGlobal and TEDIndia Fellows from 2009.


The TED2010 Fellows reflect both geographic and discipline diversity. From Israel to Brazil to Malaysia, these innovators excel in the technology, entertainment, design, science, film, art, music, entrepreneurship and nonprofit worlds. The group also includes filmmakers, engineers, artists, scientists and musicians.


"We are thrilled to embark upon our second year of the TED Fellows program with these 25 individuals. They represent a spectacular concentration of cross-disciplinary talent in the arts and sciences, entrepreneurship and engineering, education and new journalism. We look forward to their contributions to the TED community and the amazing collaborations that are sure to occur among them," said Tom Rielly, TED Fellows director.


In addition to participating as full members of the TED2010 conference audience, each TED Fellow will participate in a two-day pre-conference, where they will receive world-class communication training, deliver a short TEDTalk, and collaborate with their peers, among other benefits. The Fellows will also participate in the TED community throughout the next year, by telling their ongoing stories on the TED Fellows blog, being featured in the online Fellows directory and participating in a private social network.


The TED Fellows program seeks individuals of age 21-40 (though anyone over age 18 is eligible) who demonstrate remarkable achievement in their field of endeavor. The program focuses on candidates from five regions: Asia/Pacific, Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East. The TED Fellows program is made possible by the visionary support of the Bezos family, Sherpalo Ventures, the Harnisch Foundation, the Case Foundation, private donors and Nokia.


Meet the TED2010 Fellows:


Mubarak Abdullahi (Nigeria/UK) - Aircraftengineer who, at 24, built a homemade helicopter out of old car and bike parts


Milena Boniolo (Brazil) - Chemistand PhD student at Federal University of Sao Carlos, Brazil, who is developing methods to detect emerging contaminants in the environment


Premesh Chandran (Malaysia) - Co-founder and CEO of Malaysiakini.com, an independent Malaysian news website


Perry Chen (US) - Co-founder and CEO of Kickstarter.com, a web platform offering people a new way to fund their creative ideas and endeavors


Anita Doron (Ukraine/Israel/Canada) - Surrealist filmmaker and documentarian


Ndubuisi Ekekwe (Nigeria/US) - Engineer, inventor, author and founder of the African Institution of Technology, an organization seeking to develop microelectronics in Africa


Saeed Taji Farouky (UK/Palestine) - Documentary filmmaker, photographer and writer focusing on human rights in the Middle East and North Africa


Jessica Green (US) - Professor at the University of Oregon's Center for Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, whose research focuses on microbial diversity


Benjamin Gulak (Canada/US) - Inventor of the Uno, a "green" electric street bike, and founder of BPG Motors


Robert Gupta (US) - Violinist and youngest member of the Los Angeles Philharmonic whose area of study also included neurobiology


Cesar Harada (Japan/France/UK) - Coordinator of the Open_Sailing project, working to develop open-source technologies to intelligently inhabit the oceans


Susie Ibarra (US/Philippines) - Composer, percussionist and co-founder of Song of the Bird King, a production company using music and film to preserve indigenous culture and ecology


Jennifer Indovina (US) - Founder of Tenrehte Technologies, a semiconductor company developing wireless smart-grid applications


Mitchell Joachim (US/Canada) - Architect and co-founder of Terreform ONE + Terrefuge, non-profit design groups that promote ecological design in cities


Raffael Lomas (Israel) - Sculptor and teacher of creative visual workshops for the blind


Kate Nichols (US) - Artist-in-residence at the Alivisatos Lab who synthesizes nanoparticles that exhibit structural color and incorporates them into macroscale art pieces


Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Pakistan/Canada) - Documentary filmmaker and founder of The Citizens Archive of Pakistan, an educational institution and heritage center established to preserve Pakistan's history.


Sarah Jane Pell (Australia) - Artist-researcher, diver and founder of Aquabatics Research Team initiative (ARTi)


Manu Prakash(India/US) - Junior Fellow at Harvard Society of Fellows, physicist and inventor pursuing research in the field of physical biology


Kellee Santiago (US) -President and co-founder of thatgamecompany, a video game company working to create games that communicate unique emotional experiences


Durreen Shahnaz (Bangladesh/Singapore/US) - Founder and Chairperson of Impact Investment Exchange Asia (IIX), a social stock exchange for Social Enterprises to raise growth capital


Gavin Sheppard(Canada) -Founder of I.C. Visions and co-founder of The Remix Project, a youth program acting as an arts and cultural incubator in Toronto, Canada


Hugo Van Vuuren (South Africa/US) - Fellow at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Fellow at The Laboratory at Harvard, co-founder of Lebone - asocial enterprise working on off-grid technologies


Angelo Vermeulen (Belgium) - Biologist, filmmaker, and visual artist creating large-scale collaborative art installations


Daniel Zoughbie (US) - Founder and CEO of the Global Micro-Clinic Project (GMCP), an organization working to prevent and manage diseases in the developing world using low-cost behavioral interventions


Details on each Fellow and the program are available at www.ted.com/fellows. To support the program, or to receive more information, please contact Logan McClure at +1 212.346.9333 or via email at fellows@ted.com. Follow the TED Fellows blog at http://tedfellows.posterous.com/.


About TED


TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, NgoziOkonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The annual TED Conference takes place in Long Beach, California; TEDGlobal is held each year in Oxford, UK. TED's media initiatives include TED.com, where new TEDTalks are posted daily, and the Open Translation Project, which provides subtitles and interactive transcripts as well as the ability for any TEDTalk to be translated by volunteers worldwide. TED has established the annual TED Prize, where three exceptional individuals with a wish to change the world are given the opportunity to put their wishes into action, and TEDx, which offers individuals or groups a way to host local, self-organized events around the world. Follow TED on Twitter, twitter.com/tedtalks, or on Facebook, www.facebook.com/TED


TED2010, "What the World Needs Now," will be held Feb. 9-13, 2010, in Long Beach, California, along with TEDActive, a simulcast conference of TED2010, in Palm Springs, California. TEDGlobal 2010, "And Now the Good News," will be held July 13-16, 2010, in Oxford, UK.


Contact: Laura Galloway
laura@gallowaymediagroup.com
+1.213.948.3100

Source: TED Conferences

CONTACT: Laura Galloway, +1-213-948-3100, laura@gallowaymediagroup.com


Web Site: http://www.ted.com/