November 21, 2014
3 UW professors to speak in local TEDxRainier event
Dee Boersma
Three University of Washington professors will join a congressman, a mountain climber, inventors, architects, advocates, an astronaut and even a barista at this year’s TEDxRainier event, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 22, at Marion Oliver McCaw Hall at Seattle Center.
The independently run, one-day event is in its fifth year in Seattle, modeled after the popular TED Talks. The 2014 local event brings together Seattle-area thinkers and innovators to share ideas on the theme “The Known and the Unknown.”
Paul Yager
Session one will include two UW speakers, Dee Boersma, a professor of biology who focuses on seabirds – particularly Magellanic and Galapagos penguins – as indicators of environmental change, and Paul Yager, a bioengineering professor who builds low-cost, diagnostic technologies to make health care more accessible in the developing world.
Kristi Morgansen
In the afternoon session, Kristi Morgansen, a UW associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics, will talk about bioinspired engineering, particularly her work with fish robots.
Other notable speakers include professional mountaineer Ed Viesturs, U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott, Hadi Partovi, co-founder of Code.org, and Rex Hohlbein, the architect and photographer behind the “Homeless in Seattle” project.
Tickets range from $35 to $250 and are available online. The all-day event also will be livestreamed by public television station KCTS.
