Thus far, TEDxPSU has announced the names of nine distinguished speakers for the November 13 main event. Included in the most recent speaker additions, is a noteworthy cartoonist, a cyborg plant expert, and a digital media photographer. Through an innovative approach to their respective areas of expertise, collectively these speakers provide an incredibly diverse range of content.

Rob Rogers – America Needs an Avatar

Rob Rogers is the Editorial Cartoonist for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. A cartoonist since college, Roger’s work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Newsweek, USA Today, and other major newspapers and magazines.

James Stone – A Technological Symbiosis of Cyborg Plants

Stone is currently an M.F.A. student in New Media in the Penn State School of Visual Arts. He is working on a thesis referred to as “cyborg plants” that investigates applications of technology to plant life in an effort to create a “post-natural-plant.” If you want to learn about a plant-machine world, Stone is the person for it.

Lori Hepner – Visualizing Your Twitter Feed

Social media is a rapidly growing industry, and Lori Hepner is visualizing it. Hepner is an assistant professor of Integrative Arts at Pennsylvania State University Greater Allegheny, and has had an extensive career in photography. Hepner was commissioned to create a work for the Brooklyn Museum’s @1stfans Twitter Art feed.

If you want to catch these speakers in person, register here.

Don’t forget about tonight’s Synthesizing Sustainability TEDxPSU mini-salon event held tonight at the New Leaf Initiative office.

Which TEDxPSU speakers have you most excited?