2012 TED Fellow - Asha de Vos

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2/8TED Fellows 2012 2

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

[email protected]

*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



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.



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].



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

Email

[email protected]

Webwhalessrilanka.blogspot.com

Twitter

@ashadevos

Blue whale scientist

Q&A


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TED Conferences 2012

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2012 TED Fellow - Asha de Vos

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