Theme: Ponti (Bridges)

12 talks and 1 music performance to describe how we can connect nature and technology, us and the universe, feelings and well-being, man and robot, school and innovation, and much more. Scientists, technologists, change-makers, economists, and artists on stage to celebrate the 10th anniversary of TEDxLakeComo at the prestigious International Congress Centre of Villa Erba, Cernobbio (CO)

Centro Espositivo Villa Erba
Largo Luchino Visconti 4
Cernobbio CO, Lombardia, 22012
Italy

Alessandro Cescatti

Forest Ecologist

Since 2006, Alessandro works for the European Commission at the Joint Research Center (JRC) of Ispra where he currently directs a research group that aims to quantify the value of forests in the global climate system by making a combined use of satellite data and complex models simulation. He graduated in Forestry Sciences at the University of Padua, where he obtained a doctorate in Forest Ecology. He began his research activity at the Center of Alpine Ecology in Trento, where he investigated thoroughly the interactions between forests and the environment through monitoring stations for the study of the exchange of energy and carbon between trees and the atmosphere.

Alex Bellini

Performance Explorer

Born in 1978 in a small village in the Alps, it is from the mountains that Alex learns his first lesson: to cling rocks and to hold on. This philosophy led him to explore the most hostile environments on our planet, from the Marathon des Sables, a 250 km stage race in the Sahara desert, to Alaska, pushing a sled for a total of 2,000 kilometers, up to rowing off the Atlantic Ocean in solitary. In recent years he has also dedicated himself to another form of exploration: the psychology of maximum performance. Today he is a motivational speaker and a performance coach in the support of athletes from different sports disciplines. His big dream is to live on a melting iceberg.

Carlo Maria Paulesu

Cellist

Born in Como in 1997, Carlo Maria graduated at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory of his city. He approaches baroque music under the guidance of cellist Paolo Beschi and from 2018 he is part of the ensemble "filoBarocco." Through original arrangements and compositions, he experimented with different genres, such as rock, blues, and popular music, with the intention of highlighting their closeness to Seventeenth and Eighteenth-century music.

Carola Carazzone

Changemaker

Carola is a lawyer specialized in human rights. Strongly stimulated by the work of Amartya Sen on inequalities, human development, and fundamental freedoms, she studies the economics of development creating the first human rights office of an NGO in Italy and promotes innovative human development programs in 18 non-European countries. After 20 years of experience in international cooperation, since 2014 she is the first General Secretary woman of ASSIFERO, the Italian Association of Foundations and Institutions of Institutional Philanthropy, and she promotes processes of social change.

Gianfranco Bertone

Theoretical Physicist

He coordinates the center of excellence in gravitational and astroparticle physics at the University of Amsterdam. After a degree at the Sapienza University of Rome and a PhD from the University of Oxford and the Paris Institute of Astrophysics, Gianfranco carried out research programmes and became teacher at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in Chicago, at the University of Padua, at the Institute of Astrophysics in Paris and at the University of Zurich. He collaborates with “La Repubblica” and is the author of the "Big Bang" column for the RLab science insert. His book "Behind the scenes of the Universe: the mystery of dark matter" won the "Ciel et Espace" award in France as the best text for the diffusion of astronomy.

Guy Standing

Economist and Social Innovator

Economist, Guy is an associate professor at the SOAS University of London. Already 30 years ago he was the co-founder of BIEN (Basic Income Earth Network) of which today he is the honorary President, which is an international network of scholars and associations working mainly on local experiments of universal income. He has carried out research activities for the International Labor Organization (ILO) on issues of insecurity and job flexibility. He is the author of numerous essays including "The Precariat." "The New Dangerous Class," in which he already warned in 2011 of the possibility of nationalist shortcuts by the mass of the poor and precarious workers, and "Basic Income: And How We Can Make It Happen" (2017). He is a supporter of deliberative democracy and of the basic universal income.

Lars-Henrik Lau Heckmann

Technology Manager

Lars-Henrik holds a Ph.D. in Biology from the University of Reading and has worked both in the academic and in the biotech industry. Today he is considered one of the world's leading experts in the insect industry. Since 2014 he is the main promoter of a business innovation program at the Danish Technological Institute (DTI) focused on the development of food products based on insects. His program includes numerous research projects that focus on both insect production and its use for animal and human nutrition.

Laura Canali

Artist and Cartographer

She was born and lives in Rome. Laura has been designing for the Italian geopolitical journal Limes since 1993, where her maps are not only employed for analytical use but they can also arouse deep emotions. She has collaborated, among others, with “L'Espresso”, “iViaggi di Repubblica”, National Geographic Italy, Paravia & Pearson, TV Republic, World Bank, Macrogeo, Dante Alighieri Society, “Rai Storia”, InArch (National Institute of Architecture). From this work, she began her original artistic activity of painting and “geo-poetry”. Her works have been exhibited at the 2012 Venice Biennale, at the MAXXI B.A.S.E., at the Palazzo Ducale in Genoa, at the Rotonda della Besana in Milan, at the Celio Roman Houses, at the Parco della Musica Auditorium and at the Ducci Foundation in Rome.

Luigi Zoja

Psychologist

Luigi is one of the most known and appreciated Italian psychoanalysts. Before settling permanently in Milan, he worked in Zurich, where he attended the Jung Institute, and in New York. He was President of the Italian Center for Analytical Psychology from 1984 to 1993 and of the International Association for Analytical Psychology from 1998 to 2001. He has held conferences and courses all over the world and is the author of numerous essays including "La morte del prossimo" (2009); "The gesture of Hector, Prehistory, History, Actuality and Disappearance of the Father", and "Centauri." "At the origins of Male Violence" (2016), "In the mind of a Terrorist, Conversation with Omar Bellicini" (2017).

Martina Ferracane

Technology Policy Advisor

She dreams a world in which public policies can make the most of the digital revolution to educate, support and promote the well-being of all citizens. In 2015 Martina founded FabLab Western Sicily, an association that promotes digital education in Sicilian schools. In 2018 Forbes put her in the list of the most influential under 30 in Europe for having co-founded Oral3D, a start-up that makes 3D printing simple and intuitive for dentists. She is an associate researcher at the European Center for International Political Economy in Brussels, a Ph.D. student at the University of Hamburg and a fellow at Columbia University, the California International Law Center and the European University Institute.

Olivia Caramello

Mathematician

At the age of 19, Olivia Caramello graduated in Mathematics and earned a Piano Diploma. Then she obtained her Ph.D. in Mathematics at Trinity College in Cambridge. She has worked at prestigious institutions including the University of Cambridge, the “Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa”, the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in Bonn, the University of Paris 7 and the “Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques”. She is the author of the book “Theories, Sites, Toposes: Relating and studying mathematical theories through topos-theoretic ‘bridges’” (Oxford University Press, 2017) as well as of numerous research articles, and has given more the one hundred seminars all around the world. She has won a position "Rita Levi Montalcini" - a program funded by MIUR (Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research) to encourage the return of Italian researchers abroad - and currently teaches at the University of Insubria in Como.

Sarah Cosentino

Man-Robot Relationship Expert

Raised with the Japanese cartoons of the 80s, Sarah is passionate about robots and Japan since childhood. She is now an Associate Professor and researcher at the Waseda University in Tokyo, working with researchers from all over the world on issues of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence. She firmly believes that technology is the greatest ally of man to fight her great global problems, from pollution to poverty. When she is not working in her cave-robot, she is committed to spreading the importance of the scientific method and the need of science and education for everybody, especially to the new generations.

Valentino Gantz

Molecular Biologist

After an internship at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California, he obtained a Ph.D. from the University of California San Diego, where he is currently Assistant Research Scientist. Here Valentino developed the first application of Gene Drive technology in the fruit fly, then applied to mosquitoes with the aim of immunizing entire populations against the parasite that causes malaria. He is also co-founder of the companies Synbal Inc. and Agragene Inc. whose aim is to commercialize his technology for applications in the fields of research of new drugs, agriculture, and human therapy.