Theme: Innovación al servicio de la sociedad

TEDx UANDES se basa en el modelo de la Quíntuple Hélice, donde es necesario articular la innovación pública, empresarial, social, medioambiental y académica.

Universidad de los Andes
monseñor alvaro del portillo 12455
Santiago, Región Metropolitana de Santiago, 7620060
Chile

Andrés Couve

Professor at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biological Sciences from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, a PhD from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, USA and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at University College London, UK.

A neuroscience researcher, he served as Director of the Millennium Institute of Biomedical Neuroscience (BNI). He was the first Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation in Chile (2018–2022). Couve received the Andrés Concha Award from SOFOFA in 2017. Over his career, he has led more than 20 research projects, supervised over 25 graduate students, and published more than 50 articles in international journals. He is the author of La Liebre y el Compás, an essay on the value of science and its transformative power. He currently serves as a scientific advisor at IDEMAX.

Anil Sadarangani

Director of Innovation at Universidad de los Andes (UANDES),

biologist with a PhD from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and an MBA from the University of California, San Diego, USA. In 2018, he became Director of Innovation at Universidad de los Andes (UANDES), where he has led the institutional design and strategy for science-based innovation and technology transfer. He also oversees the process of transferring knowledge and technologies from UANDES to the market. He serves on the board of UANDES spin-offs and initiatives such as Dia+, Pregnóstica, and HubTec Chile. In 2010, while pursuing his MBA in the U.S., he developed a biotechnology venture that is currently in clinical stages.

Carolina Melo

Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences, a researcher at the Center for Research and Innovation in Reading (CIIL), and Director of the Library at Universidad de los Andes.

Consultant for the World Bank and co-founder of the network "Por un Chile que Lee". She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Virginia and a Master’s in Educational Psychology from the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on assessing and improving children's reading skills and on teacher quality. In 2020, together with Professor Pelusa Orellana, she received the Chilean Innovation Award (AVONNI) for the creation of Dialect. In 2023, Dr. Melo was named one of the 100 leading women in Chile by El Mercurio

Leo Prieto

Founder and CEO of Lemu

founder and CEO of Lemu, merges technology with ecology. At the age of 15, he created ImageMaker, a pioneer in digital development, which was acquired in 2004. He later founded FayerWayer, the most influential Spanish-language blog for a decade, and Betazeta, which was acquired by Metro International. In 2018, he launched Odd Industries, recognized by Google and later acquired by Arauco. Since 2021, he has led Lemu, leveraging advanced technology—including its own satellite, Lemu Nge—to bridge the nature data gap and make conservation a business priority.

Maroun Khoury

PhD in Health and Biology from the University of Montpellier, France, with a specialization in gene therapy for joint diseases

In his research, he employed various gene therapy strategies, including RNA interference and viral and liposomal vectors. The success of these approaches led to multiple high-impact publications, which earned him the opportunity to pursue a postdoctoral fellowship at the Koch Institute at MIT (Cambridge, Massachusetts). He later held a position at the Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART) in Singapore, where he worked with hematopoietic and fetal stem cells. He is currently the Chief Scientific Officer at Cells for Cells and Regenero, the Chilean consortium for regenerative medicine.

Rosario Navarro

President of SOFOFA

Chilean businesswoman who, in May 2023, was elected president of SOFOFA (the Federation of Chilean Industry), becoming the first woman to hold this position since the organization's founding in 1883. She holds a degree in Aesthetics from the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile. Her professional career began at the A+D art gallery, followed by a role on the social life team at Cosas magazine. She later joined the communications and marketing department at Universidad Andrés Bello, where she worked for a decade. In 2013, she joined the board of Sonda, becoming the youngest board member among IPSA-listed companies. In 2017, SOFOFA president Bernardo Larraín Matte invited her to run for the organization’s business council. In that role, she led the implementation of the executive committee and the so-called Business Evolution Committee. In August 2024, she was named one of the 50 most powerful women in Chile by Forbes magazine.