TEDxRiceU

Introducing our next speaker Dr. Scott Solomon, who is a professor and science communicator at Rice! As a Teaching Professor at Rice and Research Associate at the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History, his work involves the ecology and evolution of insects, microbes, and humans.

His TEDx talk explores the growing disconnect between scientists and the public, and why it’s time for scientists to step out of the lab and engage directly with society. He explores how the field ought to rebuild trust and counter misinformation.

Dr. Solomon is the author of Becoming Martian: How Living in Space Will Change Our Bodies and Minds (MIT Press, 2026) and Future Humans: Inside the Science of Our Continuing Evolution (Yale University Press), the latter of which was named to the AAAS Best Book List in 2017. He is a Fellow of The Explorers Club, creator and host of the Wild World with Scott Solomon podcast, and has appeared on NPR, the BBC World Service, National Geographic, and Wired. His courses on Coursera and The Great Courses have brought evolutionary biology and ecology to students worldwide.

Introducing our first speaker Sharon “Shay” Olaifa, who is a senior at Rice University studying Political Science and Social Policy Analysis! Aspiring to become a health lawyer and public health policymaker, her work examines the systemic forces that shape health inequities and advocates for community-centered, justice-focused policy solutions. As a two-year Fondren Fellow, Shay co-created the Creosote Contamination Archive at Rice’s Woodson Research Center, a community-centered archive documenting the history of toxic creosote exposure and cancer clusters in Houston’s Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens. Her TEDx talk explores how environmental racism becomes embedded in policy and rewritten in history at the expense of marginalized communities, but more importantly, how these communities fight back by reclaiming their truths through oral histories. Shay has previously interned at the Brookings Institution Center for Health Policy, the chambers of U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter Bray, and was also a Loewenstern Fellow with Soweto Organização Negra in São Paulo, Brazil. At Rice, she has served as a Student Association New Student Representative, Senator, and Director of Policy; on the Rice Journal of Public Policy Executive Board; and as a Center for Civic Leadership Ambassador, among others. Her work has earned recognition through honors such as being named a Stanford Law Scholar, a Truman Scholarship for Public Service Semifinalist, and a Fulbright Semifinalist.