Theme: Unity

TEDx USU Unity aims to provide unique and diverse perspectives on the underlying unity present in our daily lives and how developments in various fields can increase our capacity to find and promote unity. Join us on March 5th, 6:00-8:00pm, to explore this TEDx theme as our dynamic speakers inspire our neighborhood of Logan, Utah, and others around the world.

Seats for this event are limited and available only to USU students/faculty due to Covid-19. The live event will be held in the Utah State's Newel & Jean Daines Concert Hall, and a live broadcast will be shown in Utah State's Russell/Wanlass Performance Hall. All tickets include a catered dinner from Even Stevens and a TEDxUSU mug.

Tickets for the live event are sold out. To get a ticket to the live broadcast in the Russell-Wanlass Hall, call the CCA box office at 435-797-8022 or come directly to the CCA box office.

If you are unable to reserve a ticket, check tedx.usu.edu on March 5th at 6:00pm to see the live broadcast!

Daines Concert Hall
Old Main 4030
Logan, Utah, 84322
United States

Andreas Malmendier

Associate Professor of Mathematics

Andreas Malmendier is an Associate Professor of Mathematics at Utah State University. Originally from Germany, Andreas has a Ph.D. in Mathematics from MIT and a Diplom (Master’s degree) in Physics from the University of Bonn (Germany). His academic research focuses on string theory and algebraic geometry and reflects his passion for interdisciplinary research. In a nutshell, his work uses mathematics to describe physical phenomena in the world and uses physics to point his mathematical proofs in the right direction. In other words, the physics tells us how things “should” be and the math describes how things “are”.

Jeannie Johnson

Director of USU's Center for Anticipatory Intelligence + Associate Professor Researching in Political Science

Jeannie Johnson has been a spy, a diplomat, and a cultural adviser for the military. She wishes the U.S. national security enterprise functioned as efficiently in real life as is does in action movies and would love nothing more than a job that consistently requires her to jump out of airplanes. Launching USU’s Center for Anticipatory Intelligence has been an exhilarating adventure – one she shares with an amazing team of faculty and a wildly impressive group of USU’s most innovative students.

Keunhyun Park

Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture & Environmental Planning

Keun is an assistant professor and a co-director of the VIVID lab (https://laep.usu.edu/vivid/) in the Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning at Utah State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Metropolitan Planning, Policy, and Design from the University of Utah. Keun conducts behavioral research through spatial data analytics and digital technologies. Ultimately, his study aims to understand how to create healthy, just, and resilient cities through smart growth and urban nature. Specific research agendas include 1) Technology-driven behavioral research in public space (e.g., drone), 2) Spatial research on smart growth (compact, mixed-use, walkable, and transit-supportive developments) and its behavioral outcomes, and 3) Environmental justice and accessibility in urban nature.

Lianne Wappett

Lecturer in Data Analytics and Information Systems

Lianne’s experience spans academia, industry, and art. As a lecturer in the Huntsman School of Business, she coaches future leaders on communication and leadership skills—teaching students how to create compelling presentations, craft credible writing, and use data to tell stories. Lianne’s interests lie in emerging and established technology and how visual design enhances user experience and retention.

Marisela Martinez-Cola

Assistant professor in Sociology

Dr. Marisela Martinez-Cola is a native of Battle Creek, Michigan, proud daughter of a Mexican mother and Tejano father, and the first in her family to pursue education beyond high school. Ever the overachiever, she’s earned her bachelor’s, law degree, and doctorate. She is someone who, not only loves to learn, but also loves to teach. As an Assistant Professor of Sociology, Dr. Martinez-Cola teaches and researches comparative critical race studies. Her forthcoming book, The Bricks Before Brown v. Board, is an example of her this focus. In it, she studies the Mexican American, Native American, and Chinese American school desegregation cases that came before the famed, historical Brown vs. Board of Education. Her two favorite phrases are, “I’ve never heard of that before” and “I’ve never thought of it like that before.”

Michael Green

Asst. Athletic Director for Branding, Digital & Social at Texas A&M Athletics + Vexillologist

Michael Green is the Asst. Athletic Director for Branding, Digital & Social at Texas A&M Athletics and an Adjunct Professor of Design Thinking at Texas A&M University’s Mays Business School. He is passionate about the intersection of branding and personal identity and uses this to deepen fan’s affinity to Texas A&M. Michael is also a published vexillologist (flag researcher) and after the success of his TEDxTAMU talk in 2020, started Flags For Good, a company where he gets to design flags and donate a portion to causes that move the world forward. After receiving a degree in Visualization from A&M in 2011, Michael spent a year traveling around the world where he met his wife Cassie and they have been exploring this awesome planet together since.

Patrick Belmont

Professor Specializing in Watershed Sciences

Patrick Belmont is a dad and river scientist with a rapidly shrinking carbon footprint. He thoroughly enjoys studying some things that almost nobody cares about, like how and why rivers meander, but he spends most of his time trying to solve society’s most pressing problems, like figuring out where all that mud in the Mississippi River comes from and how to reduce impacts of wildfire in the western US. And of course, he is dead serious about stopping climate change.