Professor Kim Ogden of the UA department of chemical and environmental engineering has “an idea worth spreading.”

Ogden’s idea is to make algae biofuels a reality, and she will tell the world about it Dec. 3 at Tucson’s first ever TEDx event at the Rialto Theater.

TEDxTucson is themed “Innovating Our Green Economy” and billed as “a night of riveting talks by remarkable people.”

Ogden’s talk, “Sustainable and economically sound algae-based biofuels,” will center around her research on bioreactor design for production of alternative fuels from algae and sweet sorghum, and microbiological water quality.

Ogden is the engineering technical lead for the National Alliance for Advanced Biofuels and Bioproducts, a team of universities, government laboratories and industrial partners.

She was recently awarded $2.7 million by the National Science Foundation for a project that gets engineering graduates and educators teaching side by side in school classrooms.

TED, aka Technology, Entertainment and Design, is a global set of conferences curated by the nonprofit Sapling Foundation, which uses the tagline "ideas worth spreading.” Talks can be viewed free online under a Creative Commons license through TED.com.

Master of ceremonies at TEDxTucson will be Jane Poynter, biospherian and president of Paragon Space Development. “Tedsters” at this event will also be exposed to the spreadable ideas of George Land, co-founder of the Arizona Innovation Institute and Farsight Group; Bruce Wright, CEO of the UA Science and Technology Park; startup attorney and green technology advocate Erik Koester; Dave Follette, chief operating officer of UA solar energy spinoff REhnu; and Kevin Koch, CEO of Technicians for Sustainability.

As of July 2010, more than 700 talks were available online, and had been seen by more than 290 million people worldwide. During 2010, some 750 TEDx events are scheduled to happen in more than 60 countries.

TED talks are transcribed and translated into about 80 languages as part of the TED Open Translation Project, which aims to reach the “4.5 billion people on the planet who don’t speak English," according to TED curator Chris Anderson.

TEDx is a program that enables schools, businesses, libraries or just groups of friends to enjoy a TED-like experience with TEDx events they themselves organize, design and host. Examples of TEDx events include TEDxPenn, TEDxParis, and, now, TEDxTucson.