Theme: Trek Beyond The Trodden Trails

“Grasp the chance!” or, “This is your moment!” may not be the punchline that your sore with thirst mind is currently looking for. Trust this when said, you’re already on it; You’ve already made your very moment with a choice, let it tapping a tab and hitting a link which led you here on these permuted set of alphabets and words, seeking to serve the purpose of curiosity: “Okay! I gotta find what this TEDx team is up to.” And who knows where this choice is gonna take you ahead of thinking!
The mind deep inside loves to simulate things often without letting you know and every moment every choice taken by you decides the curve of your Life Diagram. A choice made, a moment spent. And your choices are what makes you You. Think yourself standing at a bay of enormous possibilities of choices you could make, and to move forward, you get to choose one. Yes, it’s uncertainty. Opportunity cost. Entropy. Is this chaos really worth to your life expectations?
Less chaotic it is when choices are made easy. For, you don’t have to WALK in a crowdy mob, it pushes you ahead. Neither need to SWIM against when already in a flow. Easy choices lead you to easy life, easy livelihood and finally a peaceful go to grave. Given a throwback, this ‘easy’ looks mediocre and ‘peaceful’ inconspicuous. Well, the other living things get a mediocre life and inconspicuous death; then where stands the difference? What made us, this very species Human? Robert Frost really knew how: “Two roads diverged in a wood and I, took the one less travelled by, & that has made all the difference.” Even when there isn’t a way, some of us create one, some other follow. Make and keep the legacy of trails which one day evolves into a road. A path paved for everyone’s sake.
We are here to listen to those different way takers and makers, the table turners, what dragged them to make uneasy choices and how eventually they make history form an uncertain leap.
Just one choice? Does it count to turn the consequences so far? Not necessarily! But don’t forget, “Your choice is a Ripple in the river of time; enough ripple can change the Tide.”
Time to question yourself now. Is your existence creating any difference, any minimal ripple, chaos or whirl round your lifeline? Do you look forward to creating some? Maybe, you should. Because those so called fool travelers rushed into the possibilities where we fear to tread and… THEY DARE YOU!

Central Auditorium, SUST
Shahjalal University of Science & Technology, Sylhet- 3114
Sylhet, Sylhet, 3114
Bangladesh

Dr. Firdausi Qadri

Emeritus Scientist

Dr Firdausi Qadri is a Bangladeshi scientist with specialization in immunology and infectious disease research. She has worked over 25 years on the development of vaccines for cholera and has expertise on other infectious disease like ETEC, Typhoid, Helicobacter pylori, rotavirus, etc. Currently, she is working as a director for Centre for Vaccine Sciences of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease and Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b). She also serves as chairperson of the Institute for developing Science and Health initiatives. In 2012, Dr Firdausi Qadri was awarded the Fondation Christophe et Rodolphe Mérieux's annual scientific Grand Prize, called the 'Christophe Mérieux Prize', for her research on infectious enteric diseases.

Dr. Tofazzal Islam

Fellow of the Fulbright, Commonwealth, JSPS and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation

Dr. Md. Tofazzal Islam is a Professor of the Department of Biotechnology of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Agricultural University (BSMRAU), Bangladesh. He obtained B Sc Ag (Hon) and M Sc (Ag) in Agricultural Chemistry from the Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU), securing First Position in the First Class in both the cases in order of merit. He went to Japan as a Japanese government scholar and did MS (1999) and PhD (2002) at Hokkaido University with distinction. He joined Bangladesh Open University as a lecturer in 1994 and became an Assistant Professor (1997), Associate Professor (2004) and Professor (2010). On July 1, 2010 he joined BSMRAU as a Professor in the Department of Biotechnology. He led the Department of Biotechnology as Head, launched MS and Ph D programs and established laboratories with state-of-art facilities from externally funded projects. He also served the BSMRAU as Director (International Affairs) and Director (Outreach).