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Welcome to the third anniversary of the TED Fellows
program. When we began, our premise was that wed
gather extraordinary young people from around the globe
and add their unique voices to the TED community. We
hoped the program would slingshot Fellows careers,
opportunities and relationships. We believe its time to
declare this experiment a resounding success.
We currently have 65 active Fellows and Senior Fellows.
So far, over the course of the program, weve fielded
274 Fellows from 73 countries*, spanning eight classes:
TED2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012; TEDGlobal 2009,
2010 and 2011; and TEDIndia.
Here at TED2012, our Fellows include a civilization
toolkit creator, a 2012 Oscar-nominated documentary
filmmaker, a wartime photojournalist, boundary-chal-
lenging artists, a development critic, a computational
architect, radical user-interface designers, appropriatetechnology inventors, a biomineralogist, an ecological
network scientist, a tissue-engineering researcher, a
space archaeologist, a whale biologist, human rights
activists, NGO founders, an architect/computer scientist,
breakthrough entrepreneurs and so many more.
Amongst the larger group of Fellows, youll find the
founders and leaders of organizations like Kickstarter,
African Leadership Academy, Embrace (baby warmers),
Working Villages (agriculture in eastern Congo), Ushahidi,
Backyard Brains (neuroscience for young people),
MakerBot Industries (3D printing technology), littleBits
(Legos for the iPad generation), Gopher Illustratedmag-
azine (art and culture), AIDG (engineers helping in Haiti)
and the Innovations in International Health lab at MIT
(low-cost health solutions for the developing world).
Many of you have asked, How can I get in touch
with or keep track of the Fellows work? Im pleased
to announce the brand new Fellows Network
(fellows.ted.com), which contains detailed profiles on
Fellows projects, passions and optionally personal
details. And you can contact any of them through the
existing TED Profile system. We expect that Fellows
most of whom know only 40 of their 274 colleagues
will forge new bonds amongst themselves, and that
TEDsters and Fellows will enjoy a whole new level of
engagement.
The Fellows program is extremely grateful for the
inaugural support of the Bezos Family, the Dhanam
Foundation, Ann & John Doerr, the Harnisch Foundation,
the Arcus Foundation, Chandra Jessee, Gerry Ohrstrom
and other key supporters. We hope you will consider
joining them and taking part in the Dhanam Foundations
outstanding challenge grant.
We invite you to meet as many of the Fellows as you
can, if not at the conference, then soon afterwards.
Have a great TED!
Tom Rielly & Logan McClure
and the TED Fellows team
*Afghanistan, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bangalore, Belarus, Belgium, Benin,
Brazil, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Chile, China, Costa Rica, DRC,
Ecuador, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Germany, Ghana, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras,
India, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Kashmir,
Kenya, Lebanon, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Myanmar, Mexico, Nepal, New
Zealand, Nigeria, North Korea, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Philippines,
Poland, Rwanda, Senegal, Singapore, Sir Lanka, Slovenia, South Africa, South
Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago,
Turkey, Uganda, UK, Ukrai ne, USA, Venezuela, Yemen.
Dear
TEDsters
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How it works
Each year, 20 Fellows attend the TED Conference in Long
Beach, California, and 20 attend TEDGlobal in Edinburgh,
Scotland, as full conference participants, with all expenses
paid. They enjoy an exclusive Fellows pre-conference where
they meet, share ideas, receive communication, fundraising,
and design training, and encounter a few surprises. They also
have the opportunity to give a talk before or during TED, andpotentially to see their talks posted on TED.com. Through-
out the rest of the year, they tell their ongoing stories on the
TED Fellows Blog and YouTube channel, and receive personal
coaching and mentoring. Coming soon: more extensive Fel-
lows profiles on TED.com so you can find out more!
The program focuses on individuals from six target regions:
Asia-Pacific, Africa, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Latin
America and the Middle East, though people from the rest ofthe world are also represented and welcome to apply. Fellows
are drawn from the many disciplines that reflect the diversity of
TEDs members: technology, entertainment, design, the sci-
ences, the humanities, the arts, NGOs, businesses and more.
Though we target innovators aged 21 to 40, anyone over 18 is
welcome to apply.
TED Senior Fellows
Of the 40 Fellows selected each year, 10 indi-
viduals are invited to participate in the extended
Senior Fellowship program, which begins the
year after their initial Fellowship. Read more on
page 56.
How you can get involvedYou can help the TED Fellows in six ways:
1) donating to support the program
2) corporate underwriting
3) mentoring a Fellow
4) teaching at a Fellows event
5) nominating an excellent candidate
6) contributing in-kind goods and services
To learn more about the TED Fellows program,
visit: www.ted.com/fellows
contact: [email protected]
follow: @TEDFellow
Launched at TED2009, the TED Fellows program brings outstanding individuals
who have shown unusual accomplishment, exceptional courage and moral imag-
ination into the TED community in order to amplify the impact of their remarkable
projects and activities.
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Thanks
Gerry Ohrstrom
Chandra Jessee
Karla & Steve Jurvetson
The Bezos Family Dhanam Foundation*
Ann & John Doerr
The Dhanam Foundation has offered a matching grant for donations of $50,000 and
above. For more information, or to participate in the matching grant, please contact
Logan McClure at [email protected].
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Thanks
Special thanks to:
David Albertson, Erich Broksas, Aditya Chadha, Perry Chen Angela Cheng, Nancy Duarte,
Karen Eng, Mike Femia, Michael Glass, Alexander Jutkowitz, Colleen Keegan, Sam Kelly,
Thaniya Keereepart, Benjamin Kellogg, David Lavin, Sandy Leong, Chris Luebkeman,
Jennifer McCrea, Emily McManus, Cara Mertes, Anjali Mohan, Mark ODonnell, Emeka
Okafor, Heather Schroder, Yancey Strickler, Margaret Sullivan, Paul Torres, Ladan Wise,
Megan Wyatt and Diana Yousef
Finally, we would like to thank the TED2009, TEDGlobal 2009, TEDIndia, TED2010,
TEDGlobal 2010, TED2011 and TEDGlobal 2011 Fellows. Not only have they been
remarkable classes, but they have also provided invaluable feedback that continues to
shape the program. To learn more about the current Fellows, visit www.ted.com/fellows.
Renee Freedman
Pam Alexander
Trish Kubal Beth & Steve Varon
Scott Wolf
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2012
Skype
ashadevos
What are you currently working on?
If someone told you that there was a group of blue whales that didnot migrate to the poles to feed, but remained in tropical waters
year round, wouldnt that make you wonder what sustains these
creatures the largest animals ever to have roamed the planet in
an area often considered low in food productivity? This is where my
quest begins.
What do you do for fun?
Everything you do in life should be for fun. It makes things so much
easier to get through. I love working on boats to learn about whales,
scuba diving to witness the color explosion of the underwater
world, traveling to experience other cultures, creating things withcrochet, oating in the ocean, living its all for fun.
Tell a surprising anecdote about yourself that few people know.
Once I encountered a turtle badly tangled in a net. I managed to lift
it onto the boat and set it free. The next day, a whale-watching boat
agged us down. A boy on board said, Asha, theres a blue whale
with some shing line wrapped around its tail. Can you remove it?
He was disappointed when I explained that it was far more compli-
cated to rescue a blue whale than a turtle!
Meet Asha
Asha grew up dreaming of becoming an adventurer scientist. She has always maintained a
deep respect for the ocean, its changing character and mystery. A qualied marine biologist,she is now working on her PhD, through which she hopes to start unraveling the many
mysteries of the blue whales in the waters around her country. As her mother says: When
she is not on the water watching whales, she is under the water watching sh.
Ashade Vos
Webwhalessrilanka.blogspot.com
@ashadevos
Blue whale scientist
Q&A
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