The new class of Fellows for TED2015 has recently been released, and among the 21 “game-changing thinkers” are Laura Boykin, a biologist and Jonathan Home, a physicist. We’ve chosen to highlight them here because even though they have very different backgrounds and goals, both use advanced computing techniques to transform the world.

Photo Credit: ted.com

Laura is a biologist who uses genomics and supercomputing to tackle food security in sub-Saharan Africa. She’s especially interested in figuring out what to do about whiteflies, which are devastating local cassava crops, a staple food in many countries.

 

Photo Credit: ted.com

Jonathan is a physicist working to build a quantum computer, attempting to achieve high-precision control of individual atoms in order to build up quantum systems, atom by atom.

TED2015 will be held March 16-20 in Vancouver.