TEDxUEA

Speakers

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

• Dr Alice Godden

  Senior Research Associate

  Dr Alice Godden is a Senior Research Associate in UEA’s School of Biological Sciences. She studies how animals adapt to rapidly changing environments, with a current focus on the genetic future of polar bears in a warming world. Combining field ecology, genomics and computational analysis, she explores how species respond to climate change and what this means for conservation. Alice regularly shares her research with public audiences through Norwich Science Festival and Pint of Science.

• Dr Daniel Marcu

  Medtech Co-Founder

  Dr Daniel Marcu is a UEA-trained scientist and entrepreneur specialising in male reproductive health. He holds an MSc in Prenatal Genetics and Fetal Medicine from UCL and a PhD in Sperm Biology and Genomics from UEA. During his PhD, he co-founded Virilitas Labs, which develops rapid diagnostics for male fertility. His work has earned Innovation and Public Engagement awards, the Beverly Tucker Award, and a place on KPMG’s 2024 list of the UK’s top tech innovators.

• Dr Georgy Pyatakov

  Senior Marketing Communications Specialist

  Georgy Pyatakov trained as a medical doctor, then went into marketing, and has spent eight years joining the two up: human biology and the science of selling. Alongside running global marketing campaigns in medical technology, he has analysed more than 430 studies to find out how brands appeal to instincts older than the wheel. Now he is writing a book about the instincts that kept our ancestors alive, and the marketers who've learned how to use them.

• Dr Nick Desnoyer

  Postdoctoral Researcher

  A specialist in flower bioengineering, Nick Desnoyer develop flowers as programmable living media for art. During a PhD at the University of Zurich, awarded with distinction, Nick transformed Arabidopsis thaliana into an ornamental flower whose traits can be designed through environmental stimuli. His work has reached more than one million people, and he has delivered over 20 invited talks across 10 countries. Now a Swiss Mobility Fellow at The Sainsbury Laboratory, Nick is founding OpenFlower, a nonprofit supporting flower bioengineering for art and education.

• Dr Russell Robinson

  Organisational Development

  Dr Russell Robinson is a leadership scholar, educator, executive coach, and founder of Amplified Coaching and Consulting. He teaches leadership at American University’s School of Public Affairs and spent more than two decades serving in the US federal government. His work focuses on employee engagement, emotional intelligence, curiosity, employee voice, and the human side of leadership. Through his teaching, research, consulting, and podcasting, Russell encourages people to ask better questions, challenge assumptions, and become more intentional about how they lead.

• Dr Stephanie Rossit

  Associate Professor in Psychology

  Dr Stephanie Rossit is an Associate Professor of Psychology at UEA and an internationally recognised neuroscientist. She studies how the brain shapes perception and guides action, and how it adapts after stroke and other neurological conditions. Her multidisciplinary research develops new therapies to improve recovery and independence after brain injury. Stephanie enjoys sharing the experiences of stroke survivors to make neuroscience accessible and highlight the brain’s capacity to adapt.

• Dr Yafa El Masri

  Lecturer in Geography and Global Development

  Born and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon, Yafa El Masri brings lived experience of displacement to their work as a Lecturer in Geography and Global Development. She holds a PhD in Geographical Studies and a master’s degree in Local Development from the University of Padova. Yafa’s research and teaching focus on forced displacement, migration and the everyday lives of displaced communities. She aims to challenge dominant narratives about refugees and contribute to more just futures for refugee and migrant communities.

• Dylan Ellis

  Financial Planner

  Dylan Ellis is an award-winning financial planner, business owner and keynote speaker based in Essex. His work helps people make clearer decisions about money and the future they want to build. Drawing on experiences of childhood adversity, family addiction and bereavement, he explores how survival behaviours shape ambition, relationships and leadership. Through his public speaking, Dylan encourages open conversations about mental health, emotional growth and moving beyond survival.

• James Piercy

  Science Communicator

  James is Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement lead for the HealthTech Research Centre in Brain and Spinal Injury and is an honorary fellow at UEA. He holds a LAMDA gold medal with distinction in public speaking, and has over 30 years’ experience in science communication, including award-recognised television and radio work. Following a road accident in 2011, James spent nearly two months in hospital with a severe brain injury and whilst having made a remarkable recovery, still lives with the effects of his injury.

• Jaz Brook

  Campaigns and Democracy Officer

  Jaz Brook is an environmentalist, entrepreneur and campaigner. She founded Youth Climate Solutions and the UK’s first student-run climate week and has supported thousands of young people with climate action, careers and wellbeing. A UEA International Development graduate with first-class honours, Jaz is a finalist for the EAUC Green Gown Awards. As the elected Campaigns and Democracy Officer at UEA Students’ Union, Jaz leads campaigns on the cost of living, student voice and sustainability.

• Joseph Dixon

  Biomedical Science Student

  Joseph Dixon is the founder of Rooted, a platform helping people find and book Black and textured-hair stylists in London, and a biomedical science student at UEA. His work explores whose needs technology overlooks. In September he coordinated the Community Catwalk across World Afro Day's 10th anniversary festival. Joseph is Vice-Chair of the Hackney Thinking Spaces Community Advisory Board, an Amos Bursary scholar, and received the High Sheriff's Special Recognition Award for his community work.

• Katy Dorman

  Apprenticeship Strategy Manager

  Katy Dorman is Apprenticeship Strategy Manager at Norfolk County Council where she leads the award-winning Apprenticeships Norfolk service. With almost 20 years’ experience in education and skills, she helps employers navigate apprenticeships and co-chairs the National Apprenticeship Hub Network. A former apprentice, Katy completed a Level 7 Senior Leader apprenticeship with distinction. She received a 2025 Churchill Fellowship to study how other countries support employers to create apprenticeship opportunities and was named ‘Skills Champion of the Year’ by Department for Education in the same year.

• Kelly Grainger

  Neurodiversity Consultant

  Kelly Grainger, known as “The Autistic CEO”, is a keynote speaker, workplace mediator and co-founder of Perfectly Autistic. Drawing on lived experience of autism and ADHD and more than 25 years in corporate roles, he helps organisations make workplaces more inclusive for neurodivergent people. His talks explore late diagnosis, masking, burnout and practical changes leaders can make. Through Perfectly Autistic, Kelly has trained thousands of leaders and employees and supported organisations in improving management practices.

• Kit Marie Rackley

  Schools Climate Hub Coordinator

  Kit Marie Rackley (they/she) is an award-winning educator, science communicator, and public speaker. At the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, they work on the relationship between climate, education, and wellbeing, supporting schools and policymakers to respond to the realities young people already face. After more than a decade in the secondary classroom, Kit’s work is shaped by a simple but urgent question: what does it mean for education to be responsible when the future itself is uncertain?

• Prof Lucy Barnes

  Professor of Law

  Lucy Barnes holds a PhD in the philosophy of law from the University of Kent. She is a professor in the University of East Anglia Law School where she teaches, among other subjects, the philosophy of law. Lucy has taught in higher education institutions for over 20 years and holds a particular interest in demonstrating how (legal) philosophy can have tangible impact on our practices and actions in the 21st century.

• Prof Nicco Krezdorn

  Reconstructive Plastic Surgeon

  Professor Nicco Krezdorn is a reconstructive plastic surgeon, scientist and Head of Department at Zealand University Hospital in Denmark. Alongside his clinical work, he leads research spanning surgery, artificial intelligence, regenerative medicine and emerging healthcare technologies. He is particularly interested in how ideas from different fields can solve complex problems. As a speaker and writer, he explores innovation, decision-making and the future of medicine.

• Shannon Rivers

  Director of Inclusion & Wellbeing

  Shannon Rivers is Founder and Director of Social Responsibility & Change CIC and Director of Inclusion & Wellbeing Advisory at Business in the Community. For over a decade, she has helped organisations turn commitments to inclusion into meaningful changes in practice. Her work explores how organisations can address power and make space for difficult but necessary conversations. An award-winning practitioner, writer and speaker, Shannon draws on systems thinking and her lived experience as a Black, queer woman.