NEW YORK, May 26 /PRNewswire/ --

- TED Fellows program brings outstanding, world-changing leaders to 
participate in TED community

Organizers of the TED Conference introduced today the 25 new TED Fellows
who will participate in TED's annual international conference, TEDGlobal.
These Fellows have been invited to join the TED community by attending
TEDGlobal 2009, to be held in Oxford, UK, July 21-24. The 25 TEDGlobal
Fellows join the 40 TED Fellows selected for the TED2009 Conference, held in
February in Long Beach, where the TED Fellows program was announced. The
principal goal of the TED Fellows program is to empower TED Fellows to
effectively communicate their work to the TED community and to the world.

The 2009 TEDGlobal Fellows comprise an eclectic group of individuals from
Bahrain to Argentina to Malawi, and from Jamaica to the Philippines. These
innovators represent diverse disciplines - technology, entertainment, design,
science, film, art, music, entrepreneurship and the nonprofit world.
TEDGlobal Fellows include doctors, writers, political scientists, artists and
dancers. One is a magician, one an inventor, one a humanitarian Jesuit
priest. All are committed to the spread of great ideas.

"From a leading female Kenyan software developer to a young political
scientist from Belarus, from a Jamaican robotics expert to a next-generation
Burmese human rights activist, we couldn't be more thrilled with our
inaugural TEDGlobal Fellows," said Tom Rielly, TED Community Director. "We
look forward to their collaborations with each other and with members of the
TED community, following the example of the post-conference activities of our
40 brilliant TED Fellows from TED2009 in Long Beach."

In addition to participating as full members of the TEDGlobal conference
audience, each TED Fellow will participate in a two-day pre-conference, where
they will receive world-class communication training, deliver a short
TEDTalk, and collaborate with their peers, among other benefits. Their
TEDTalk may be selected for posting on TED.com, where it has the potential to
be viewed hundreds of thousands of times. They will also participate in the
TED community throughout the next year, by telling their ongoing stories on
the TED Fellows blog, being featured in the online Fellows directory and
participating in a private social network.

Later this year, TED will choose 20 of this year's TED and TEDGlobal
Fellows to be TED Senior Fellows. They will participate in five additional
conferences, for a total of six over a course of three years, with additional
benefits.

The TED Fellows program seeks individuals 21-40 (though anyone 18 and
over can apply) with demonstrated remarkable achievement in their field of
endeavor. The program focuses on candidates from five regions: Asia/Pacific,
Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America and the Middle East. The TED Fellows
program is made possible by the visionary support of the Bezos family,
Sherpalo Ventures, the Harnisch Foundation, the Case Foundation, private
donors and Nokia.

Meet the 2009 TEDGlobal Fellows:

Esra'a Al Shafei (Bahrain) - Blogger; founder, MideastYouth.com, an
interfaith online network for Middle Eastern youth

Xavier Alpasa, SJ (Philippines) - Social entrepreneur; pastor; director,
Loyola College Culion; founder, Rags2Riches, a business bridging the
marginalized and fashion worlds

Rachel Armstrong, MD (UK) - Physician; science-fiction author; teaching
fellow researching living architecture

Nassim Assefi, MD (US/Iran/Turkey/Afghanistan) - Physician; novelist;
global women's health specialist

Frederick Balagadde, PhD (Uganda/USA) - Research scientist, Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory; co-inventor of the microchemostat, a medical
diagnostic chip

Michelle Borkin (US) - 3D visualization researcher; astronomer; applied
physicist, Harvard

Constanza Ceruti, PhD (Argentina) - High-altitude
archeologist/anthropologist specializing in Incan ceremonial sites

Candy Chang (US/Finland) - Cross-disciplinary design specialist; public
installation artist; urban planner

Jessica Colaco (Kenya) - Researcher; mobile technology evangelist;
blogger

Shereen El Feki, PhD (Canada/UK/Egypt) - Journalist; academic; writer
working to develop a dialog between Arabic and non-Arabic speakers

Gabriella Gomez-Mont (Mexico) - Founder, Toxico Cultura, an independent
cultural project and think tank in Mexico City

Jonathan Gosier (US/Uganda) - Founder, Appfrica, an organization
nurturing and investing in East African software startups

Peter Haas (US/Haiti/Guatemala) - Founder, Appropriate Infrastructure
Development Group, bringing appropriate technology to the developing world;
tinkerer

Meklit Hadero (Ethiopia/US) - Singer; musician; resident artist, Red
Poppy House; founding member, Arba Minch Collective

Marvin Hall (Jamaica) - Founder, Halls of Learning, an organization
educating Jamaican youth in areas including robotics and animation

William Kamkwamba (Malawi/South Africa) - Student, African Leadership
Academy; inventor

V.K. Madhavan (India) - Executive director, Central Himalayan Rural
Action Group, a group specializing in rural agricultural development

Evgeny Morozov (Belarus/US) - Blogger; writer; political scientist
looking at how the Internet influences civic engagement and regime stability

Naomi Natale (US) - Founder, One Million Bones and the Cradle Project,
socially focused large-scale art installations

Alexander Petroff (US/Democratic Republic of the Congo) - Founder,
Working Villages International, an organization building sustainable villages
in the DRC

Zoya Phan (Burma/UK) - Exiled Burmese human-rights activist; author

Seth Raphael (US) - High-tech magician; founder, X-Pollinate, an
interdisciplinary team of innovators

Nuhu Ribadu (Nigeria/UK) - Exiled Nigerian anti-corruption pioneer;
lawyer

Fred Swaniker (Ghana/South Africa) - Founder, African Leadership Academy,
a secondary school for the next generation of African leaders

Benji Zusman (US) - Filmmaker; scientist; co-founder, CURIOUS, a
multi-disciplinary production collective

Details on each Fellow and the program are available at
www.ted.com/fellows. To support the program or for more information, please
contact Logan McClure at +1-212-346-9333 or via email at fellows@ted.com.
Follow the TED Fellows blog at tedfellows.posterous.com.

About TED:

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started in 1984 as a
conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then, its
scope has broadened to include science, business, the arts, and the global
issues facing our world. The annual conference now brings together the
world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the
talk of their lives - in 18 minutes. Attendees have called it "the ultimate
brain spa" and "a four-day journey into the future." The diverse audience -
CEOs, scientists, creatives and philanthropists - is almost as extraordinary
as the speakers, who have included Bill Clinton, Bill Gates, Jane Goodall,
Sir Richard Branson, Philippe Starck, Isabel Allende and Bono.

TED was first held in Monterey, California, in 1984. In 2001, Chris
Anderson's Sapling Foundation acquired TED from its founder, Richard Saul
Wurman. In recent years, TED has expanded to include an annual international
conference, TEDGlobal; media initiatives, including TEDTalks and TED.com; and
the TED Prize. TEDGlobal 2009, "The Substance of Things Not Seen," will be
held July 21-24, 2009, in Oxford, UK. TEDIndia will be held in Mysore, India,
Nov. 1-4, 2009. TED2010, "What the World Needs Now," will be held Feb. 9-13,
2010, in Long Beach, California, with a simulcast event in Palm Springs,
California. For details on all upcoming conferences and events, visit
www.TED.com.

Contact: 
    Laura Galloway
    laura@gallowaymediagroup.com
    +1-212-260-3708