Speakers List
People, Passion, Possibilities: Making a Difference
Ann Marie Calhoun |
Grammy Nominated Rock Violinist
Ann Marie Calhoun is an internationally acclaimed rock violinist, an actress, composer, singer, and virtuoso across many diverse genres of music. Her experience and unique ability have made her one of the most sought-after creative forces in the entertainment industry. Touring with the legendary Ringo Starr, Dave Stewart (Eurthrymics), Jethro Tull, and Steve Vai, she has also performed as a soloist at the Grammy awards, performed with Bon Jovi at the White House for President Obama, and was featured in the Radio City Music Hall celebration of Nelson Mandela’s Birthday.
Watch her TEDx Talk
www.AnnMarieCalhoun.com
Phil Cousineau |
Storyteller Extraordinaire
Phil Cousineau is an award-winning writer and filmmaker, teacher and editor, lecturer and travel leader, storyteller and TV host. His fascination with the art, literature, and history of culture has taken him from Michigan to Marrakesh, Iceland to the Amazon, in a worldwide search for what the ancients called the “soul of the world.” With more than 25 books and 15 scriptwriting credits to his name, the “omnipresent influence of myth in modern life” is a thread that runs through all of his work. His books include Stoking the Creative Fires: 9 Ways to Rekindle Passion and Imagination, The Art of Pilgrimage: The Seeker’s Guide to Making Travel Sacred, The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work, and most recently, Wordcatcher: An Odyssey Into the World of Weird and Wonderful Words.
Adam Gazzaley, M.D., PH.D. |
A mix of science and art - brain scientist and nature photographer.
Dr. Adam Gazzaley is a rare mix of science and art. He now directs a cognitive neuroscience laboratory at the UCSF Mission Bay campus, which focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms of memory and attention in humans. In addition to his laboratory, he has recently established and now directs the Neuroscience Imaging Center (NIC) at UCSF, a core facility designed to use the tools of human neurophysiology, notably functional MRI, to study the healthy and impaired brain. It is likely that Adam's extensive scientific background now provides the colors for his nature photography palate. He feels that "both are an exploration of nature, be it the discovery of the organization, complexity or beauty of the brain, a neuron, a waterfall or a sunset; it's all about the art of perception." The focus of Adam's philosophy emerges and is portrayed in his book, Wanderings.
www.gazzaleylab.ucsf.edu & www.comewander.com
Jeff Greason |
He's a Rocket Man!
Jeff Greason has devoted his life’s work to creating and managing innovative technical project teams at XCOR Aerospace, Rotary Rocket Company (RRC), and Intel Corporation. Time magazine named Jeff as one of their “Inventors of the Year” for his team’s work on the EZ- Rocket in 2002. He is the president and co-founder of XCOR; leading an engineering team that has developed 11 different long life, highly reusable, liquid-fueled rocket engines using nitrous oxide, liquid oxygen, and hydrogen peroxide oxidizers, with kerosene, alcohol, ethane, and other nontoxic propellants. Under Jeff’s leadership the company has also developed low cost liquid propellant piston pumps and two generations of piloted reusable rocket aircraft. The EZ-Rocket was flown 26 times, and the X-Racer flew 40 times, without a mishap. Jeff is also the co-inventor of XCOR’s Nonburnite technology.
Jason Halpern |
The Green Entrepreneur
Jason Halpern is an extraordinary entrepreneur. He is particularly interested in how to combine insights from the fields of engineering, business, and design in order to identify and solve meaningful problems. Jason is the CEO of PowerFlower Solar, a seed stage solar technology company developing a portable, durable solar generator for farmers and the military. The second company, Tangent Robotics, was recently formed to develop a novel spherical mechanical linkage with implications in robotics and prosthetics. He received undergraduate degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Management, and a Master’s degree in Integrated Product Design from the University of Pennsylvania.
Salman Khan |
Bill Gates' Favorite Teacher
Salman Khan (Sal) Salman Khan is the founder and faculty of the Khan Academy www.khanacademy.org)-- a not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a free world-class education to anyone, anywhere. It now consists of self-paced software and, with over 1 million unique students per month, the most-used educational video repository on the Internet (over 30 million lessons delivered to-date). All 2000+ video tutorials, covering everything from basic addition to advanced calculus, physics, chemistry and biology, have been made by Salman. Prior to the Khan Academy, Salman was a senior analyst at a hedge fund and had also worked in technology and venture capital.
Margo McAuliffe |
Founder of Girls School in Kenya
Margo McAuliffe is a retired high school math teacher who at the age of 69 followed a life-time dream to go to Africa. Margo ended up teaching math to girls in Kenya. Landing in Naivasha, she established Kenya Help (www.kenyahelp.us) a non-profit dedicated to helping women and children in Kenya. Through her work, Kenya Help has built St. Francis Xavier Secondary School for 320 girls in Naivasha, Kenya. In addition, Kenya Help has provided scholarships for many of the girls and refurbished the nearby orphanage. Margo returns to Kenya each summer for 2 months to teach, further support groups serving at-risk girls and women, and to learn more about the ways of Kenya.
Keith Raffel |
CEO Turned Mystery Author
As counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Keith Raffel held a top secret clearance to watch over CIA activities. As an entrepreneur, he founded UpShot Corporation, Silicon Valley’s first company based on a cloud computing model, and sold it to Siebel Systems. These days he stays busy writing his mysteries and thrillers in Palo Alto, California. The national bestseller Smasher: A Silicon Valley Thriller is his latest. Drop by www.keithraffel.com for updates. He has also been a carpenter, college writing instructor, candidate for elective office, and professional gambler.
Robert Scoble |
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America's Most Famous Blogger
Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. He is best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technology evangelist at Microsoft. Today, he works for Rackspace, and Building 43 as their chief troublemaker. He previously worked for Fast Company as a video blogger. He is also the co-author of Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers with Shel Israel. Tech enthusiast, video blogger, media innovator, fanatical about startups. Searching the world for world-changing technologies at Rackspace, home of fanatical support and Web hosting for Internet. He is married and has three children.
Dr. Kim Silverman, PH.D. |
Principal Research Scientist at Apple
Dr. Kim Silverman is Principal Research Scientist at Apple. His Ph.D. is from Cambridge University, and his post-doctoral research was conducted at Bell Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. By night Dr. Silverman studies the more "esoteric" arts. He is a president of the Society of American Magicians (Palo Alto), and a Magician Member of the Academy of Magical Arts, better known as the world-famous Magic Castle in Hollywood. Drawing from his backgrounds in science, technology, and cognitive psychology, Kim strives to move the performance of magic from mere presentation of "tricks" to a deeper and more meaningful affirmation of human life. His presentation will demonstrate this with some of his award-winning signature pieces.
Pete Stringfellow |
Country Artist
Pete Stringfellow is a classically trained musician and vocalist with three college degrees in music and a masters degree in interactive multimedia. “Music makes me tick.” Immediately out of college, Stringfellow signed his first record contract with Classified Records as a songwriter, producer and recording engineer. While Pete is best known as a country artist, he has written and produced original songs for over 70 movies and television shows, including Meet the Parents, Matchstick Men, Next Friday, The Simpsons, Judging Amy and CSI: Miami. He's also worked on new media projects for recording artists such as Rascal Flatts, Reba McEntire, Lee Ann Womack and Terri Clark. Stringfellow won the prestigious Discovery Award in Music Row Magazine in 2006. Pete divides his time between Nashville Tennesee and Santa Rosa, CA.
Kevin Surace |
Entrepreneur of the Year
Kevin Surace, Inc. Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year, is on a mission to drive energy efficiency in the built environment, bring green jobs and manufacturing back to the US, and bring innovation to industries that had long lost it. Kevin wants to reduce the use of fossil fuels and their effect on the environment by greening manufacturing processes that create the basic components of our everyday life. As CEO of Serious Materials, Kevin leads the company in its mission to reduce energy usage of the world’s largest contributor, our buildings. Before joining Serious Materials in 2002, Kevin held executive and technical positions with Perfect Commerce, General Magic, Air Communications, National Semiconductor, and Seiko-Epson.
Jonathan Trent, Ph.D. |
NASA Nanotechnology Scientist
To provide practical answers to critical questions regarding sustainable energy, Jonathan Trent initiated a project called "Global Research into Energy and the Environment at NASA (GREEN)." This project, supported by Google, led him to investigate biofuels that do not compete with agriculture. With a Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, Jonathan turned his attention to the oceans as the energy frontier for biofuels and he developed a system called "OMEGA" (Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae). OMEGA emerged from his knowledge of the ocean, his years of training in microbiology in prestigious labs in Germany, Denmark, and France, and his knowledge of engineering from his research at Argonne National Lab in Chicago and, for the last 12 years, at NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. The OMEGA project is supported by the California Energy Commission and NASA Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.
www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/OMEGA/index.html
Karen Trilevsky |
People Magazine "Hero Among Us"
Karen Trilevsky founded FullBloom Baking Company in Newark, California in 1989 and has been the company’s sole owner for 21 years. People Magazine recognized Karen as “Hero Among Us” Karen’s passion for baking and enthusiasm for turning good values into good business have kept her intimately involved in day to day operations. Karen built FullBloom around three core values: make the highest quality, best tasting baked goods possible, be committed to the environment and sustainability, and care for the health and well-being of the community. Karen currently sits on the Board of Directors of Food, Family, Farming and FullBloom’s own Smart Cookie Scholarship Fund.
Ge Wang |
Co-founder of Smule and Creator of Magic Piano & Magic Fiddle
Ge Wang is the Co-founder, CTO, and Chief Creative Officer of Smule. Smule is a startup company exploring interactive sonic media on the iPhone. . Smule serves as a unique platform for research and development combining the state-of-the-art in computer music research with the potential to bring its visions to a wide population. Ge is the designer of Ocarina and Leaf Trombone: World Stage for the iPhone, and Magic Piano for the iPad. These expressive social musical instruments currently enable over two millions users expressively play and share music with one another around the world. Overall, Ge's mission is to deeply explore new ways with which people think, do, and interact through sound, technology, and music.
Chris Waugh |
IDEO Human-Centered Designer
Chris Waugh is a Leader of IDEO’s Consumer Experience Design practice, to which he brings his expertise in innovation and human-centered design to consumer products. His particular areas of focus are innovation, behavioral change, wellness, and food and beverage. Whether he’s working on a project involving sports drinks or online banking, Chris uses a multidisciplinary approach to identify and answer questions such as, “What’s the future of community?” and “What’s the relationship between design and behavioral change?” His current passion is applying design thinking to personal wellness and global sustainability, but over the years he has worked on a range of design breakthroughs for clients such as Bank of America, Bosch, Campbell’s, Kendall-Jackson, NatureWorks, Nike, PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble, and Shimano.
http://www.ideo.com/thinking/voice/chris-waugh
http://therealstoryblog.com/tag/chris-waugh/
And a surprise guest.....
Steve Mazan |
Steve Mazan is a comedian who shot out of the famous San Francisco scene that produced comedy legends such as Robin Williams and Dana Carvey. He was born and raised in Chicago and lived aboard a submarine for 5 years before heading west to pursue his dream of making people laugh. In his decade long career, Steve has done stand-up everywhere, from clubs and colleges across the country to corporate events, cruises, and many television and radio appearances. He even won an Emmy for his work writing on The Ellen Degeneres Show. Steve has performed on The Late Show with David Letterman, The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, The Bob & Tom Radio Show, Sirius/XM Radio and even done audience warm-up for shows such as Deal or No Deal. But of all the performances he has done, he is most proud of his seven trips to Iraq and Afghanistan to perform for our troops. In 2011, the documentary "Dying to do Letterman" about Steve's life was completed and began winning awards and inspiring people around the world
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Serious, Surace and TedxSanJoseCA — posted by t3dxideas was updated on 03/06/2011 03:22 PM by t3dxideas
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Dr. Kim Silverman by Garima Agarwal — posted by t3dxideas was updated on 02/24/2011 04:02 PM by t3dxideas
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