Andrew Pelling, the University of Ottawa researcher known for treating “biology like hardware,” has been named a TED2017 Senior Fellow.
Pelling attracted attention for his 2016 TED Talk where he talked about his love for digging through garbage, the philosophy of his experimental lab, and growing a human ear from a carved apple.
As a senior fellow, he may have the possibility of delivering another talk from the TED stage.
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“We ask some pretty wild, crazy questions, or at least on the surface (they) seem kind of nuts, but we test and validate them with scientific rigour. What you end up doing is discovering all sorts of things that you never thought were possible. That’s led to some really cool innovations,” he told Techopia in 2016.
For two additional years, senior fellows receive continued support for their work from the TED community in exchange for additional mentoring and guidance for new and existing classes of fellows.
“I am so grateful to be a part of such a vibrant and impactful group of people. I look forward to cultivating even deeper relationships with the remarkable global leaders found within the wider TED community,” Pelling said in a statement.
In an attempt to spur further experimentation, Pelling’s lab has spun off a company called Spiderwort, which sells the biohacking material and open-sourced lab equipment involved in his own research.
By the way, if you try Pelling’s methods for yourself and grow any body parts from pieces of fruit, give us a call. We’re all ears.
