ERC speakers share ground-breaking ideas at TEDx Brussels
The European Research Council (ERC) has teamed up with TEDx Brussels to present an exciting new session featuring ERC speakers. Eager TEDx participants gathered at BOZAR Brussels today can also look forward to an opening talk by ERC grantee and Nobel Prize winner, Prof. Christopher Pissarides. From producing graphene in a blender, to simulating tsunami waves and creating an invisibility cloak, the ERC panel is ready to present their high-risk, high-gain, EU-funded research to the 2 000 strong crowd expected today. Addressing this year’s theme ‘The Territory and the Map’, their talks will cover new ground at the frontiers of human knowledge in areas as diverse as oceanography, nanotechnology and invisibility. The speakers will give an insight into their research and explain how their pioneering ideas, supported by ERC funding, are being realised. Prof. Christopher Pissarides, ERC grantee and winner of the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences is taking the floor in the opening session with a talk that takes a fresh look at unemployment in Europe. He will be followed this afternoon by the ERC session featuring Prof. Jonathan Coleman demonstrating how graphene can be made in a kitchen blender; Dr Tiziana Rossetto discussing how simulating tsunamis can help better inform engineers and architects about natural disasters; Prof. Ulf Leonhardt demonstrating the possibility of invisibility with optics; and Dr Laura Robinson focussing on how the ocean's environment is changing now and may in the future. The speakers look forward to addressing an enthusiastic audience: world-famous TEDx conferences gather together the cream of tech, design and innovation communities as well as curious minds keen to absorb new ideas and groundbreaking research results. Dynamic and inspiring TED and TEDx talks garner hundreds of millions of views on YouTube. TEDx Brussels Director Sam Lounis de Brouwer warmly welcomed the new partnership with the ERC: ‘TEDx Brussels is glad to count on the partnership of the prestigious European Research Council in this year’s edition. The central place it has gained in Europe by sharing and spreading ideas in science makes it a natural partner’. ERC President Professor Jean-Pierre Bourguignon added: ‘The participation of five ERC laureates in this TEDx Brussels event is testament to the ERC's ability to inspire minds with passionate and innovative research leaders on stage. TEDx talks are a most welcome exercise of popularising science and we really look forward to listening to a new strain of thought-provoking presentations’. Members of the ERC Scientific Council will also be in attendance at the event. The ERC Scientific Council is composed of 22 leading scientists who define the ERC science strategy in Europe and act on behalf of the scientific community to promote creativity and innovative research in Europe. For more information, please visit: ERC http://erc.europa.eu/media-and-events/events/tedx-brussels-territory-and-map TEDx Brussels http://www.tedxbrussels.eu/
Countries
Belgium