Seventh AAS Member Joins Ranks of TED Fellows

The number of AAS members chosen as TED Fellows now stands at seven. Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil (University of Arizona) has been named to the Class of 2018, which includes 20 young innovators from four continents. She joins Carrie Nugent (Caltec/IPAC), Class of 2016; Aomawa Shields (University of California, Irvine), Class of 2015; Jedidah Isler (Vanderbilt University), Class of 2015; Renée Hlozek (University of Toronto), Class of 2013; Hakeem Oluseyi (Florida Institute of Technology), Class of 2012; and Lucianne Walkowicz (Adler Planetarium), Class of 2011, as TED Fellows. Nugent is being honored again in 2018 with her selection as a TED Senior Fellow.

Top row: Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil, Carrie Nugent, Aomawa Shields & Jedidah Isler
Bottom row: Renée Hlozek, Hakeem Oluseyi & Lucianne Walkowicz

"The TED Fellows program supports extraordinary, iconoclastic individuals at work on world-changing projects, providing them with access to the global TED platform and community, as well as new tools and resources to amplify their remarkable vision," says the TED website. "The TED Fellows program now includes 453 Fellows who work across 96 countries, forming a powerful, far-reaching network of artists, scientists, doctors, activists, entrepreneurs, inventors, journalists and beyond, each dedicated to making our world better and more equitable."

As one of this year's Fellows, Mutlu-Pakdil will deliver a talk on the TED stage this April at the 2018 TED Conference in Vancouver, British Columbia. 

TED is a nonpartisan nonprofit organization devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks. TED began in 1984 as a conference where technology, entertainment and design (i.e., TED) converged, and today it covers almost all topics — from science to business to global issues — in more than 110 languages. Meanwhile, independently run TEDx events help share ideas in communities around the world.

Congratulations to these stellar AAS members!