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 spread it Dec. 3 at Tucson’s first ever TEDx event at the Rialto Theater.

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

Ogden’s talk was titled “Sustainable and economically sound algae-based biofuels.”

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.