Four leaders in technology, entertainment and design visit campus on Feb. 22, 2014, to give short lectures as part of the university's TEDx program in Whitley Auditorium.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22
Whitley Auditorium, 1 p.m.
Elon University hosts its own TEDx event, an independently organized version of TED Talks. Four speakers will tell their stories and offer new ideas for technology, entertainment and design (TED).
All talks will be recorded and made available online. Elon University seniors Carolina Howland and Kirsten Hughes are organizing the event.
“Approaching my last two years at Elon, I knew I wanted to increase my involvement on campus,” she said. “I loved the idea of bringing something to Elon that could both benefit students and also give back to the greater community, and a TEDx event was the perfect embodiment of these two concepts.”
The program is capped at 150 guests and tickets have sold out for the event. Follow the TEDxElonUniversity program on social media (@TEDxElon on Twitter) for a chance to win tickets between now and Saturday. For additional information, email TEDxElonUniversity@gmail.com.
Leanne Gluck
Title: “From Maker to Change-Maker”
From inspiring students to fixing the world someday, to using 21st century tools to change the world now, 3D printing enables everyone to turn ideas into opportunities for impact and action.
Gluck is director of social impact at 3D Systems, a leading provider of 3D printing centric design-to-manufacturing solutions including 3D Printers, print materials and cloud sourced on demand custom parts. These solutions are used to rapidly design, create, communicate, prototype or produce real parts, empowering customers to manufacture the future. In her role, she manages corporate philanthropy, youth education and sustainability initiatives, helping 3D Systems deliver on the mission of “Making Good.”
Previously she worked at the Clinton Global Initiative building cross-sector collaborations to support the future of manufacturing in the United States. She was also the national Project Manager for “uniquely ME!”, the Girl Scout/Dove Self Esteem Program, helping kids across the country discover a strong sense of self, connect with others and take action to make the world a better place. Gluck holds a bachelor’s degree in cross-cultural communications from Baruch College and an MBA with a focus on social enterprise and global sustainability from The Ohio State University.
Eric Henry
Title: “98% (the percentage of clothes we buy made overseas)”
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented in the mid 1990s we have seen a massive shift to overseas apparel production resulting in destroyed communities, bankrupt businesses and ten of thousands of unemployed people. Time to balance the scales.
Eric Henry, president of TS Designs in Burlington, N.C., is one-half of the dynamic duo that owns the company. Alongside his business partner and TSD CEO, Tom Sineath, Henry has been in the screen printing and apparel business for more than 30 years. His duties at TSD range from sales to R&D to marketing.
Outside of TS Designs, Henry devotes much of his time to furthering the sustainable agenda in various community organizations. He founded the Burlington Biodiesel Co-op in 2001 and has run his car on biodiesel (or straight vegetable oil) that now has travelled more than 250,000 miles. Along with Charlie Sydnor and Sam Moore, Eric founded Company Shops Market, a co-op grocery in downtown Burlington that reconnects local agriculture to Alamance County. His most recent start-up is the Burlington Beer Works Co-op.
Henry serves on the Burlington Downtown Corporation board, which works to create an environment for development that enhances Downtown Burlington as the cultural, historic, social and economic center of the community. He also serves on the board of NC GreenPower, an organization that purchases and resells renewable energy, and Green America.
Jeffrey Rusick
Title: “NASA Deep Space Exploration Challenges: Power and Radiation”
Rusick currently works at the NASA Glenn Research Center in Cleveland for the NASA Radioisotope Power System program that provides advanced power generators for deep space science missions, including the Mars Science Laboratory, which landed the Curiosity rover on Mars in 2012. Curiosity is powered by a radioisotope thermoelectric generator, which provides approximately 110 Watts of power to the rover day and night, using heat from the natural decay of (plutonium) Pu-238.
Rusick is working on an advanced stirling radioisotope generator (ASRG), which will be four times more efficient than the current rover RTG for future NASA missions. He is also the NASA Product Assurance lead for the ASRG project. He graduated from Miami University in 1974 with a bachelor’s degree in physics and went on to The Ohio State University to receive his Master of Science in nuclear engineering.
James “Jim” F. Demarest
Title: “Putting Innovation into Practice: Advancing the treatment of HIV/AIDS until there is a cure”
HIV-1 infection has evolved from a death sentence to a chronic disease. This significant clinical breakthrough has been realized as a result of scientific advances leading to the development of potent, novel anti-HIV medicines. These advances have changed the landscape of HIV treatment from multiple pills several times per day to options for one or two pills that may be taken once per day. Strict adherence, faithfully taking every daily dose of medicine over the years, is required to maintain successful control of HIV and prevent the development of drug resistance. Furthermore, despite the clinical benefits of current treatments, they do not cure HIV infection. This TEDx Talk will discuss innovations focused on advancing novel treatments 1.) that require less frequent dosing and 2.) attempt to achieve HIV cure.
Demarest joined ViiV Healthcare at its inception in November 2009 as the director of microbiology strategy. ViiV Healthcare was created by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer as a global specialist HIV company dedicated to delivering advances in treatment and care for people living with HIV.
Demarest provides global oversight for the virology and immunology associated with pre-clinical and clinical phase compounds as well as marketed products. Prior to joining ViiV Healthcare, he spent more than 10 years at GlaxoSmithKline R&D (legacy GlaxoWellcome) where he was involved in the discovery and development of novel antivirals, immune-based therapies, and vaccines for the treatment of HIV-1 infection.
Demarest earned his doctorate from the George Washington University while conducting research at the National Institutes of Health/NIAID. He did a post-doctoral research fellowship at Duke University, where he is currently an adjunct assistant professor. Demarest and his family reside in Durham, N.C.