KIM PHUC PHAN THI

Title: Life Lessons
Description: Kim Phuc’s inspiring journey in her own words. Lessons learned from her ordeal and her amazing survival; her inner struggles, how she learned to forgive and came to see the famous photograph as a powerful way to spread a message of peace and love.

Biography:
Known as the “napalm girl,” or simply as “the girl in the picture”, PHAN THI KIM PHUC is the 9-year-old Vietnamese girl depicted in photographer Nick Ut’s iconic Pulitzer Prize-winning photo, shot after a U.S. led napalm bombing of Kim’s village during the Vietnam War on June 8, 1972. Severely burned by the napalm, Phuc’s agony so moved Ut that he took her to the nearest hospital. She was not expected to survive but she eventually recovered over 14 months and with 17 surgeries. Kim is married to Bui Huy Toan, and they have two sons, Thomas and Stephen. They sought political asylum in Canada and are now Canadian citizens. In 1997, Kim set up The Kim Foundation International to help child victims of war. She is a lifetime UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for the Culture of Peace and travels the world sharing her inspiring message of love and forgiveness.

 

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CHRISTOPHE GALFARD

Area of Expertise: "The Universe In Your Hand" - Physics For All

Title: A Journey to the End of the Visible Universe
Description: Starting from the Earth, we shall travel through the known and unknown universe to figure out what today’s vision of our reality is. We shall understand how stars and planets are formed and discover how it was understood that our universe, like everything else, actually has a history, leading to the idea that it may have started at some stage in our past.

Biography:
Christophe Galfard has studied Advanced Mathematics and Theoretical Physics at Cambridge University, England, where he did his Ph.D. on Black holes and the Origin of our Universe under the supervision of renowned Professor Stephen Hawking. Praised for his ability to explain difficult ideas with simple words, Christophe devotes has been, for the past few years, devoting his time to spreading scientific knowledge to the general public. He has given public talks in front of more than 200,000 people, children and adults alike, throughout the world. He is a regular guest on TV and radio shows in France, where he is one of the most acclaimed popular science writer and speaker. Christophe has written many award-winning popular science books for children about the Solar System and our Earth’s Climate before writing The Universe in Your Hand, his first book for adults, now an international best-seller translated into 16 languages.

 

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AARON TAIT AND KAITLIN TAIT

Topic: Global Citizenship, Teacher led Innovation
Title: Edupreneurs: Changing the world from the classroom
Description: Aaron and Kaitlin will share stories from their personal experiences as educators and entrepreneurs, taking the audience from warzones, to the Australian outback, and from African slums to the stages of the world’s largest education conferences. Be prepared to be inspired, challenged and supported as you work to unleash ideas that will change your school, and maybe even change the world.

Biography:
Aaron Tait- Aaron is the co-founder and Director of Innovation of Education Changemakers, and brings the radical thinking element to EC that helps us to stand out from other players in the global professional learning landscape. His ability to draw upon out of the box ideas and challenge education audiences to trial new concepts is globally recognised and is well illustrated in EC’s recently published book ‘Edupreneur: Unleashing teacher led innovation in schools’ of which Aaron was the lead author. Aaron draws upon lessons from a diverse career that has seen him serve for seven years as a decorated Australian military officer, run a secondary school for street-children in a Tanzanian slum, run an orphanage in Kenya, and graduate from three Masters degrees in strategy, international relations and development, with the third, from Cambridge University. Aaron is the co-founder and former CEO of Spark* International, and now the CIO of YGAP, an organisation that has accelerated hundreds of high impact entrepreneurs across six countries who have dramatically changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty in Africa and the Asia Pacific. Aaron has spoken with audiences including TED, Do Lectures, AITSL, Microsoft, ACEL, HSBC, AFL PWC and Sankalp.

Kaitlin brings a powerful combination of education and entrepreneurship experience to the EC facilitation team. The holder of a masters degree of international education, she has taught in schools across England, Australia and East Africa in both high and low SES contexts. As the co-founder of Spark* International, and the global General Manager of Impact for YGAP she has accelerated hundreds of impact entrepreneurs across Africa, Asia and Australia and overseen programmes that have changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people living in poverty. Additionally, as the founder of SHE Africa and the One Roof Plus Accelerator (exclusively for female entrepreneurs) she brings a particular strength to the EC team around female leadership. Kaitlin was named as the 2014 Australian social entrepreneur of the year by the Foundation for Young Australians.

 

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