Florida Tech Physics and Space Science Professor Receives Prestigious TED Global Fellowship
MELBOURNE, FLA. —Hakeem Oluseyi, Florida Institute of Technology assistant professor in the Department of Physics and Space Sciences, has been named a 2012 TEDGlobal Fellow, a prestigious appointment, which he shares with 18 other innovators from 17 other countries. The TEDGlobal Fellows program is sponsored by TED, a nonprofit organization devoted to “ideas worth spreading” through its two annual conferences in Long Beach, Calif., and Edinburgh, Scotland, and its TED Talks. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The new class of TEDGlobal Fellows will attend the TEDGlobal 2012 conference in Edinburgh in June; the conference will feature about 70 speakers over four days covering an eclectic array of topics. The Fellows will give TED Talks in a special Fellows session, participate in high-level workshops and join in the conversation with the TED community during the conference.
Since its establishment in 2009, the TED Fellows program has honored 287 Fellows from 75 different countries, chosen from 6,500 applications from around the world. The program brings together young world-changers and leaders from different disciplines—technology, design, entertainment, the sciences, the humanities, the arts, NGOs and more—who have shown unusual accomplishment and exceptional courage. The program helps spread awareness about its Fellows and supports their careers through ongoing coaching, mentoring and collaboration within the TED community.
“It is wonderful to be acknowledged as a TEDGlobal Fellow,” said Oluseyi. “These fellowships are extremely competitive. There is perhaps no greater compliment for a professional than to be recognized for one’s hard work. This fellowship acknowledges not only the technical innovations that I have been honored to have been a part of, but also my continued efforts to bring positive changes in the world through developing scientific research and education capacity, particularly among the least served populations at home and abroad.”
Earning two bachelor’s degrees in physics and mathematics in 1991 at Tougaloo College in Mississippi, Oluseyi later earned master’s and doctoral degrees in physics from Stanford University in California. Some recent honors include selection as a U.S. State Department Speaker & Specialist for South Africa in 2011, awards for Best Paper and for Outstanding Technical Innovation at the 2010 National Society of Black Engineers Aerospace Conference; selection as the 2006 Technical Achiever of the Year Award in the field of physics from the National Technical Association; and a NASA Earth-Sun System Science New Investigator award in 2006.
Oluseyi first entered the TED stage as a headliner at the TEDxOrlando conference in November 2010 where he discussed the science behind the Big Bang. TEDx, a creation of TED, is a program of local, self-organized events. Oluseyi’s talk can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiNnhJZf6Ys.
On July 6, International Space University/ Space Studies Program (ISU-SSP12) participants and the general public will have the opportunity to attend a freeTEDx event 9 a.m.-noonat the Gleason Performing Arts Center on campus. The event’s focus is on how space studies and accomplishments make life better here on Earth. This will be the first joint TEDx event for ISU, NASA’s Kennedy Space Center and Florida Tech. For more information, visit www.isunet.edu.
