TEDxBoston

David Edwards

How a philosophy and a practice of fusing art, science, experiential learning, and social impact are catalyzing innovation in today’s students by igniting their curiosity and giving them the freedom to pursue their creative inventions.

Watch it on demand (RT: 18:03)

Watch David Edwards' TEDxBoston Talk

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Biography

David Edwards, Gordon McKay Professor of the Practice of Biomedical Engineering, Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences

David Edwards is a Harvard professor and founder of Le Laboratoire, a new innovation space in downtown Paris, where artists and scientists perform collaborative experiments. The outcomes of these experiments are exhibited to the public in the form of contemporary art and design installations. Since its opening in October 2007, Laboratoire exhibitions have attracted international media attention, with exhibition themes ranging from contemporary art, to industrial design, to humanitarian advocacy. The principal of Le Laboratoire as an artscience catalyst for innovation is described in David’s recent book Artscience: Creativity in the post-Google Generation (Harvard 2008), which draws on the experience of many contemporary innovators in Boston and internationally. Among these experiences are David’s own as founder of many for profit and not for profits organizations, including the Cloud Foundation, a Boston based foundation that oversees Cloud Place, a dynamic center for urban youth arts, which launched in January with Mayor Thomas Menino The Boston 100K ArtScience Innovation Prize. David has received numerous national and international awards for his artistic and scientific work and lives in Boston and Paris with his wife Aurelie and three sons.