Theme: Transforming lives

This second edition of TEDxPlaceDesNations will showcase remarkable stories of scientists and peacemakers, innovators and humanitarians transforming lives of people around the globe and finding solutions to shaping tomorrow's world.

Assembly Hall, Palais des Nations
Palais des Nations, avenue de la paix 14
Avenue de la Paix 14
Geneve, Genève (fr), 1211
Switzerland

The Computer Orchestra

The Computer Orchestra was created by Simon de Diesbach, Laura Perrenoud and Jonas Lacote, when they were students at ECAL, the University of Art and Design of Lausanne, Switzerland, in 2013. They have since been joined by Marc Dubois. In 2015, they won the Collide@CERN residency, 3 months at CERN to create a new project. In January 2016, the Computer Orchestra was shown fir the first time in Brazil thanks to Swissnex Brazil and the RC4 festival.

The Philippe Ekeke Trio

Philippe Ekeke born and raised in Cameroon, left his country in time of turmoil to study in France and now lives between France and Switzerland. He supports many causes with his music, including the fight against Female Genital Mutilation. The Trio is composed of Christophe Diard on keyboard, Yves Bajulaz on saxophone, and Philippe Ekeke, vocals.

Baroness Beeban Kidron

Baroness Beeban Kidron is a filmmaker, activist, documentarian and co-founder of the educational charity Into Film. Since 2012, she is a lifetime peer of the UK House of Lords where she sits as a Crossbench Peer.

Coline Rapneau

Coline Rapneau served as an International Committee of the Red Cross humanitarian field delegate for six years in Guinea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Haiti and Cambodia. She is now the Sexual Violence Advisor at the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Dennis Liotta

Dennis Liotta is an Organic Chemistry Professor and Executive Director of the Institute for Drug Development, DRIVE, at Emory University in Atlanta,Georgia. Over the past two and a half decades his research has focused on the discovery and development of novel antiviral, anticancer and anti-inflammatory therapeutic agents.

Didier Pittet

Professor Pittet is a Hospital Epidemiologist, Director of the Infection Control Programme and WHO’s Collaborating Centre on Patient Safety, at the University of Geneva Hospitals. He is the Lead Adviser of the WHO Clean Care is Safe Care & African Partnerships for Patient Safety programmes. Today, the Clean Care is Safer Care campaign runs in over 180 countries.

Ger Duany

Ger Duany is internationally known as a model and actor. He recently starred in the film The Good Lie, which tells the story of 3 refugees struggling to integrate as they resettle to the United States. In 2015, he was appointed UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador for he East and Horn of Africa region.

Leonardo Sakamoto

Journalist, doctor in political science and a professor of journalism at the Catholic University of Sao Paulo, Sakamoto is an advisor to the United Nations Fund of Contemporary Forms of Slavery. He is also a founder of Reporter Brasil, an NGO that identifies and publicizes human rights violations and slave labour.

Ranyee Chiang

Ranyee Chiang is the Director of Standards, Technology and Fuels at the Global Alliance for Clean Cookstoves, hosted by the United Nations Foundation, an alliance of 1300 organizations. The American Association for the Advancement of Science selected Chiang as one of its “40@40 Fellows” and the American National Standards Institute awarded her their “Next Generation Award” in 2015. She is also the Chairperson of the ISO Technical Committee for Clean Cookstoves and Clean Cooking Solutions (ISO/TC 285).

Rohini Swaminathan

Rohini Swaminathan is a Geomatics engineer working with UNOSAT, the Operational Satellite Applications Programme of UNITAR, the United Nations Institute of Training and Research based in Geneva, Switzerland. She also trains local decision-makers in Asia and Africa on systems to reduce disaster-related risks in Bangladesh, and countries in East Africa. Previously she worked with DEVELOP, part of NASA’s Applied Sciences Program in the United States.

Şafak Pavey

Şafak Pavey is one of Europe’s leading lights on human rights, peace-building, and inclusion. Between 2003 and 2010, Şafak worked for UNHCR in Geneva and on missions in the Middle East, Southwest Asia, and Central Europe. She has also worked as a peace activist in a number of conflict areas, including Afghanistan. In 2012, she was honored with the International Women of Courage Award by the United States Department of State, and is a member of the United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which meets in Geneva. She is a Member of the Turkish Parliament representing Istanbul.

Scott Foster

Scott Foster, an engineer and innovative thinker on energy is Director of the Sustainable Energy Division at the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). He has led numerous strategy engagements on the question of climate change – how to change portfolios of policy, investment and behavior in light of the science and politics of climate change.

Thabitha Khumalo

The Honorable Thabitha Khumalo is a Member of Parliament, representing the Bulawayo East Constituency in Zimbabwe. A human rights defender and champion of of the rights of children, women, and the disadvantaged she was appointed to the Inter-Parliamentary Union’s (IPU) Advisory Group on HIV/AIDS and Maternal, Newborn and Child Health serving as its Vice-Chair until 2015. In Zimbabwe, she was active in the Parliament Select Committee on the new Constitution, responsible for crafting a new Constitution under the Zimbabwe Government of National Unity.