Past TEDx event

TEDxShirazUniversity

the unknown

Took placeJune 24, 2021
LocationShiraz, Fārs, Iran
FormatUniversity
With the constant redefinition of science and the growing number of newly emerging interdisciplinary studies, the need for reaching a general level of comprehension in areas which are not necessarily in our field of expertise, seems of the utmost importance. Furthermore, if we peer into the history and philosophy of sciences and achieve a proper understanding of scientific methods, by the means of critical reasoning and thinking, we may be able to differentiate between science and pseudoscience. The science that is defined as: Rules and theories, depending on facts, that are both empirically verifiable and practically reliable. Frank Wilczek, MIT professor and physics Nobel laureate, quotes Einstein in an interview with the BBC, and says “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” But later he emphasizes that both are equally crucial and that “knowledge without imagination is barren.” In order to establish a new trend in various fields of science, technology, art, etc. there seems to exist the need for imagination more than ever before. This process, hand in hand with reflection, could make us step into “the unknown”, an awe-inspiring terrain, which ideally has a practical output for making the world a better place for people to live in.

Speakers

Speakers may not be confirmed. Check the event website for the latest lineup.

  • Afshin Montakhab

    Afshin Montakhab has a Ph.D. in Theoretical Condensed Matter Physics from the University of California, Santa Barbara. His specialty is Statistical Mechanics. He has been teaching and doing research at Shiraz University since 2000. He works on a variety of problems from complex networks to relativistic thermodynamics. He is also interested in the two fast-growing fields of quantum information and neuroscience.

  • Alireza Askari Chaverdi

    Alireza Askari Chavardi, a faculty member of the history department at Shiraz University, received his doctorate in Historical Archeology from Tarbiat Modares University. He has been the dean of Shiraz University of Arts for several years and has completed several excavation projects, cooperating with archaeologists from different universities.

  • Armin Sanayei

    Armin Sanayei was born in Tehran-Iran in 1992. He started music with plying violin under Ebrahim Lotfi at the age of 6 in Tehran. he started to learn composition from Amir H.Eslami and then under renowned Iranian composer, Ahmad Pejman when he was 12. In 2013 he has been invited by Dr.Peter Leisch to Festival 4020 in Linz to get his “Clarinet Quintet” premiered with "Hugo Wolf String Quartet" in Brucknerhaus. it spired him to move to Austria and pursue his composition study in Vienna. Since 2013 he is a composition student in the university of music and performing arts Vienna (MDW) under Prof. Dr. Martin Lichtfuss and Prof. Detlev Müller-Siemens(student of G.Ligeti and O.Messiean) As a freelance composer, his pieces have been performed in several halls by great musicians and ensembles such as Hugo Wolf Quartet, Alban Berg Ensemble Wien, Duo Arcord, Reconsil Ensemble Vienna (conducted by Roland Freisitzer), Max Brand Ensemble, Florian Berner(Cello), Marta Sudraba(Cello).

  • Kaveh Fattahi

    Kaveh Fattahi is a designer with an academic background in both architecture and urban design. Currently he is an Assistant Professor of architecture in the Faculty of Art and Architecture of Shiraz University and the founder and director of Tech-Lab. He holds a PhD in architecture and urban design from the Graduate School of Engineering, Hokkaido University in Japan (2010), where he was a Postdoc Research Fellow in the Architectural Design Laboratory as well. His main research topic is Neuro-architecture, which is a novel method of studying restorative/destructive effects of architectural/urban environmental cues on users' mental well-being, perception, emotion and behavior using Neurotechnology-oriented approach. In 2019 he has started a new division in the Tech-lab called NEUROTECHTURE (Neuroscience + Technology + Architecture) to address such research and to initiate and strengthen the application of emerging technology tools/methods in architecture and urban design studies.

  • Mohammad Nami

    Mohammad Nami is a medical doctor and applied neuroscientist, holding PhD in clinical/cognitive neuroscience and clinical fellowship in sleep disorders. He is currently the Director of Brain, Cognition and Behavior Unit at the Department of Neuroscience, Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. Dr Nami is a member of the Harvard Alumni for Mental Health at Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA and serves as a Visiting Professor at SBMT/Brain Mapping Foundation, Los Angeles, CA. He’s also a Medical Advisor to Inclusive Brain Health, Swiss Alternative Medicine, Geneva.

  • Mohammadreza Amini

    Mohammadreza Amini, born in 1960, first began studying sociology at Shiraz University, but changed majors to Persian literature during the Cultural Revolution. His scientific curiosity led him to study general linguistics during his master's courses. He got a PhD in Persian literature. He is currently an associate professor in this field at Shiraz University. In addition to literary articles, which are mainly in the fields of literary criticism, poetry, stylistics and analysis of the language of poetry, he has translated texts and poems from English and French into Persian. His first translated book is the poetry of the seventeenth-century French poet Nicolas Boalou, some poems by Andre Chagnie and Victor Hugo. He has been teaching Persian language and literature at the University of Strasbourg, France, for four years and is one of the founders of the University Center of Iranian Studies and Research in Alsace. In 2019, he published the book "New Miniatures".

  • Mohammadreza Aslani

    Mohammad Reza Aslani is a filmmaker, documentarian, poet, painter, graphic designer, and an art theorist. He has studied Painting at School of Decorative Arts in Tehran which is now known as University of Art. He is also graduated from Technical School of Television and Cinema which is now Iran Broadcasting University.In 2015, Aslani received his certificate of First Order Artistic Badge from Ministry of Culture and Iranian Academy of the Arts.

Organizing team