Chiara Facciotto

Brainstormer, Connector, Educator/Teacher, Event planner, Foodie, Project manager, Scientist, World traveler

I am come from a very small village in the Italian Alps, and have always loved to travel! I tried to use my university years to do just so and I've lived in Turin, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Paris and Helsinki, where I am currently doing my PhD on cancer research. After getting my doctoral degree I hope to become a science communicator. For the past two years I have been the main organizer of TEDxHelsinkiUniversity, an incredible adventure that brought lots of amazing people in my life! I am also a board member of The Science Basement, a scicomm group founded by PhD students at the University of Helsinki.

Science communication!!!! For now it's just a hobby, but one day I hope it will become more :-) Water was my very first love; swimming and scuba diving are my treats. Growing up in Italy I got spoiled with amazing food; as a consequence, cooking for people is now one of my sweetest joys! Be careful because I might spend an hour talking about cheese :-) Coming from a small village in the Alps, travelling and immersing myself in other cultures led to my greatest adventures! I love singing (mostly in the shower) to unleash raw emotions through my voice. However, since I rarelly listen to the lyrics of a song (music for me is more of a feeling), I only remember a handful of song :-D

Let's bring researchers out of the university, so they can interact with the public and build a bridge between academia and society!

Bioinformatics, Cancer Research, Epigenetics, Science Communication

I was in the elevator. Spring teaching just ended, summer was about to start, and I wondered how to fill it with something meaningful. That’s where it hit me: why don’t I organize a TEDx? I shared the idea with my student council and everybody was on board! That's how it started. We recruited a few more people and worked really hard for nine months... But the feeling at the end of our first event was like... "Being high in life" as one of the other organizers described it! We knew even before the first event there was gonna be a second one, which brought different challenges and new people. I can't wait to share my experience and learn from all the other organizers at TEDWomen. Organizing TEDxHelsinkiUniversity has been a life-changing experience for me, because it made me realize that organizing events like this is my true passion!