As a botanist at the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Congo basin, Corneille Ewango has faced down poachers and soldiers who threaten this delicate and vital ecosystem.

Gayle King is a co-host of "CBS This Morning” and Editor-at-Large of the award-winning O, the Oprah Magazine.

Poet, playwright, filmmaker and educator Chinaka Hodge uses her own life and experiences as the backbone of wildly creative, powerful works.

Kang Lee has devoted his career to understanding the development of social cognition and behavior.

Lian Pin Koh expands conservation efforts by championing the use of low-cost autonomous aerial vehicles.

Zoologist Dr. Lucy King helms the Human-Elephant Coexistence Program for the Kenyan research charity Save the Elephants.

Caleb Chung dreams up toys that interact with children. He's the inventor of Furby, a talking (and listening) robotic furball that sold some 50 million units in the late '90s. His newest plaything: Pleo the adorable robot dinosaur.

Severine Autesserre traces civil war and endemic violence to its roots, and its resolution, in local and interpersonal conflicts.

TED Fellow Robert Hakiza is the co-founder of the Young African Refugees for Integral Development (YARID), which empowers refugees and builds community through vocational education, English classes, access to sports and computer literacy skills.

TED Fellow Anjan Sundaram has spent the last decade writing about 21st century dictatorships, forgotten conflicts and discrimination around the world – from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Rwanda and India.

Vanessa Nakate is the founder of the Rise Up Movement, which seeks to amplify the voices of climate activists in Africa.

Kevin Njabo is coordinating the development of UCLA's newly established Congo Basin Institute (CBI) in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

With an eye for nature’s forms and lessons learned from its materials, Jeanne Gang creates iconic environments that stand in curvy relief to blocky urban cityscapes.

At the Simons Foundation, Wendy Chung is working to characterize behavior, brain structure and function in people with genetic variations that may relate to autism.

Ruth Chang asks why some choices are so hard — and what that means for the human condition.

Ian Chang breathes a new kind of human vulnerability into electronic music.

John Koenig is writing an original dictionary of made-up words.

Swinging from Hollywood blockbusters to sensitive indie films, Thandiwe Newton brings thoughtfulness and delicate beauty to her work.

Zachariah Mampilly is an expert on the politics of both violent and non-violent resistance.

Bandi Mbubi would like to make sure that you are using a fair trade cell phone.

Canku One Star promotes living a healthier lifestyle via song and dance.

As a writer on animal cognition and emotion, Barbara J. King seeks to motivate us all to be kinder to the animals we share the planet with.

Kaki King combines jaw-dropping guitar work with dreamy, searching songwriting.

Candy Chang creates art that prompts people to think about their secrets, wishes and hopes -- and then share them. She is a TED Senior Fellow.

Sougwen 愫君 Chung is an artist and researcher whose work explores the dynamics between humans and systems.

Musician Emily King is living proof that if you want to change your mind (and your art), the best thing you can do is change your scenery.

Zach King runs a film studio in Los Angeles focused on making content that surprises, uplifts and sparks imagination.

Dr. Bronwyn King on a mission to save a billion lives -- from tobacco, the greatest preventable cause of premature death.

Eugenia Cheng devotes her life to mathematics, the piano and helping people.

Rosie King challenges stereotypes of people with autism and contextualizes the issue by asking us, “Why be normal?”