Ben Eisenkop is an ecosystem ecologist working on his doctorate at Binghamton University who investigates patterns of nitrogen biogeochemistry in relation to the behaviors of various animals including the American crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) and teaches as a graduate instructor. He is also the person behind the alias "Unidan" on the news and link aggregator website Reddit.com, where he has reached millions of users by delivering "micro-lectures" on various biological topics and produced ecology-themed videos on YouTube. He has been featured on Mashable.com, The Daily Dot and MentalFloss.com for his scientific writing, and has recently garnered praise for his unconventional methods of funding science projects. He is also a collaborator on the upcoming book "Great Adaptations," which aims to teach the concepts of evolution and adaptation to children.
Dr. Hannah Fry is a mathematician and complexity scientist from University College London’s Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis. Her work revolves around exploring the patterns in human behavior and applying a mathematical perspective to tackle a wide range of problems across our society. With a view to informing policing strategy in the future, she has examined the behavior of rioters and harnessed the patterns that emerge from burglaries and crime hotspots. While in urban design, she has worked with predicting the shopping patterns of city residents and examined the connections between a daily commute to work and the resilience of tube networks to terrorism. Alongside her academic position, Fry is passionate about sharing the abstract beauty of mathematics with others and demonstrating its importance in our modern world. She has a broad portfolio of media and public engagement activities from schools outreach, math-themed stand-up comedy, YouTube videos and public lectures – including her first TEDx talk which now has over 500,000 views across all TED channels. Fry also regularly presents the Number Hub strand of BBC Worldwide’s YouTube channel, Headsqueeze.
After helping to inaugurate CNN.com on the Internet in the early 1990s, Garzik worked at a succession of Internet startups and service providers for over two decades, all while working on open source software engineering projects. Involvement in one of the best-known open source projects, the Linux kernel, led to an extended tenure at Linux leader Red Hat, during open source's most formative years.
In July 2010, while reading slashdot.org, Garzik stumbled across a post describing bitcoin. Immediately recognizing the potential of a concept previously thought impossible − decentralized digital money − he did what came naturally: developed bitcoin open source software and started micro-businesses with bitcoin at their foundation. Almost by accident, Garzik found himself square in the middle of the global, disruptive, amazing hurricane of a technological phenomenon known as bitcoin.
Anna Holmes has written and edited for numerous publications, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Newsweek, InStyle, Harper’s, Newsweek and The New Yorker online. She is the founder of the popular Jezebel.com website and the 2012 recipient of a Mirror Award for Best Commentary. In 2013, her Twitter account was named one of the top 140 Twitter feeds by Time magazine, at which point she became incredibly self-conscious and stopped tweeting as much. She is the editor of two books, including the Book of Jezebel, An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Lady Things, and Hell Hath No Fury, Women’s Letters from the End of the Affair, and was recently named a columnist for the New York Times Book Review. She lives in New York.
Ruben Santiago-Hudson’s first love is the stage. A Tony and Obie Award winner, his acting credits span stage, television and film. He has starred in many films including Their Eyes Were Watching God, American Gangster, Mr. Brooks, Shaft, The Devil’s Advocate and Domestic Disturbance. His television credits include three seasons on ABC’s Castle, the PBS Nova special Forgotten Genius, Showtime’s The Red Sneakers, the American Tragedy miniseries and Solomon and Sheba, the first biblical movie made starring actors of color. This past fall Santiago-Hudson co-starred in the AMC network television drama Low Winter Sun.
Santiago-Hudson made his Broadway acting debut as Buddy Bolden in Jelly’s Last Jam and has performed in more than 100 plays. His portrayal of Canewell in August Wilson’s Seven Guitars garnered him a Tony award. He was last seen on Broadway as Joe Levay in Lydia Diamond’s critically acclaimed Stick Fly. Most recently, Santiago-Hudson was honored to be asked by his late friend and mentor August Wilson to perform the New York premiere of his solo show, How I Learned What I Learned, which just ended its extended run at the Signature Theater, off-Broadway.
Santiago-Hudson made his screenwriting debut bringing his award-winning play Lackawanna Blues to the small screen for HBO, receiving many awards and accolades including the Humanitas Prize, National Board of Reviews honors, the Christopher award and an NAACP Image award.
Santiago-Hudson made his directorial debut with August Wilson’s Gem of the Ocean and has gone on to direct many off-Broadway shows. Most recently, his production of August Wilson’s The Piano Lesson brought him Obie, Lucille Lortel, Audelco and Joe Callaway honors for his direction.
Santiago-Hudson earned a bachelor of arts degree from Binghamton University and a master of fine arts degree from Wayne State University, and holds an honorary doctorate from Buffalo State College.
Launched over 40 years ago, the war on drugs is America's longest armed conflict and is increasingly viewed as a failure: the nation has spent $1 Trillion, made 40 million arrests, become the leading jailer in the world and institutionalized racial disparities into a system many refer to as the New Jim Crow. Yet drugs and addiction remain an ever-present fact of life in communities across the nation. Now, there is increasing debate about reforming our drug laws. Where do we go from here? What is the future of drug policy in the U.S.?
Though we know the title of this talk, we don’t have a description. You’ll have to come to TEDxBinghamtonUniversity to learn what it’s all about! It won’t take long once Sebastian begins speaking – though he wants to keep it a secret for now, you’ll be on board with him within the first 60 seconds!
The Binghamton Crosbys, an all-male a cappella group most commonly referred to as, simply, The Crosbys, is the first independent music club recognized by the University and is the only all-male a cappella group at Binghamton University.
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