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

Laura Galloway for TED Conferences, +1-212-260-3708, laura@gallowaymediagroup.com