Rohan Roberts

ABOUT 

Overview

Rohan is the director of the Dubai Science Festival.  He is a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of several global organisations including,  Intelligent Optimism, Café Scientifique Dubai and Awecademy. 

He is the Head of Future Learning at GEMS Education (world's largest private education provider) where he is responsible for promoting Innovation Strategy Planning and Entrepreneurship across 40+ institutions of learning in the UAE & rest of the MENA region. Central to his role is the generation and expansion of programmes and strategies aimed at redefining institutions as places in which new ideas, solutions, and products are developed, shared, and scaled, and lead to significant improvement outcomes.

Rohan has been described in the media and by those who know him as a Renaissance Man, a Polymath, and a Multi-potentialite. He takes an interdisciplinary approach to problem-solving and is passionate about promoting Scientific Literacy, Moonshot Thinking, Cosmic Citizenship, Radical Openness, Intelligent Optimism, STEAM, Neuro-Education, & Innovation in pedagogy.

Above all, he's keen to make a positive impact on the world around him and help young people find their Flow and solve the big challenges facing our planet and our species right now. 

Education

Rohan has a Master’s degree in English Literature from the University of Leeds, a PGCE from Sunderland University, and a CICTT diploma from the University of Cambridge.

He is a Microsoft certified Master Trainer, a Google Certified Educator, and has won numerous national and international awards in the field of Education, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. He is a prolific writer and artist, and has spoken at numerous national and international conferences including UNESCO Expo Sciences, Aspen Ideas Festival, Google EDTech, and Global Education Forum among others. He was the 2017 host of the Global Innovation Summit and in Dec 2015 he was invited to TED Global in Geneva.

He has worked with MIT's SOLVE lab, Harvard's Project Zero, and is currently collaborating with Singularity University in creating a Global Futures Curriculum about the impact of exponential technologies, accelerating change, abundance mindsets, and disruptive innovations. 

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In November 2017 he was invited to attend the inaugural Expo2020 World Majlis to share his views about the future. And in February 2019 he was featured at the World Government Summit as one of six individuals embodying the Advanced skills of the Future. 

Podcasts

Rohan is the co-producer of The Adjacent Possible Podcast. He is a regular guest on national radio shows such as Dubai Today with Suzanne Radford, Talking of Books with John MacDonald, and on Classic FM's Morning Show with Andrew Hosie. He is a proponent of science, literature, philosophy, art, innovation, exponential technologies, and disruptive thinking.

Click here to listen

Conferences

Rohan has keynoted at numerous national and international conferences and panels, including at UNESCO Expo Science, Google EdTech, Bett, World Education Summit, Aspen Ideas Festival, Global Education Forum, and many more. In 2016, he was the host of the Global Innovation Summit, and in Dec 2015 he was invited to TED Global in Geneva.

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Awards

Rohan has received numerous national and international awards in education, innovation, and entrepreneurship. He is also the 2017 finalist of the $1 million Global Teacher Prize, shortlisted out of 20,000 applicants from 179 countries. 

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Travel​

Rohan is an experience junkie and an avid traveller. He has been to 69 countries and over 200 cities. 

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Blog

Rohan is a regular blogger and writes about art, literature, science and philosophy. He's a prolific writer of essays.

Click here to view his blog.

Art​

Rohan is a prolific artist. His oil and acrylic canvases and digital prints have been exhibited at numerous art exhibitions including at Dubai's Bastakiya art district. 

Click here to view his online gallery

Publications​

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From award-winning educator, innovation expert, and Global Teacher Prize finalist, Rohan Roberts, comes a provocative look at why our current education system is not fit for purpose and why we need to overhaul it. Cosmic Citizens and Moonshot Thinking: Education in an Age of Exponential Technologies takes a fresh approach to what we need to do differently to prepare our children for a world of exponential technologies, disruptive innovations, and ubiquitous A.I.

In this groundbreaking book, Roberts outlines the purpose of education in a world of increased outsourcing and automation and explains how we can future-proof our youth to survive and thrive in a world of accelerating change. Through interactions with corporate leaders, interviews with principals, meetings with parents, and surveys of students, this book considers how the best and brightest students would overhaul their education system.

The book highlights the role of neuroscience in education and explores several fascinating concepts such as radical openness, abundance mindsets, the gig economy, the technological singularity, intelligent optimism, the age of imagination, humanics, transhumanism, and the importance of Enlightenment values as we advance into the 21st Century. Underpinning this book is a constant focus on the importance of bringing a sense of awe into education and fostering a sense of cosmic wonder when contemplating human purpose and human existence.

"Roberts takes a fresh approach to what we need to do differently to prepare our children for the future." 

Based on Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Existential intelligence involves an individual's ability to use collective values and intuition to understand others and the world around us. People who excel in this intelligence typically are able to see the big picture and ask deep questions that transcend perception.

As Gardner points out: “Existential intelligence has been valued in every known human culture. Cultures devise religious, mystical, or metaphysical systems for dealing with existential issues; and in modern times or in secular settings, aesthetic, philosophical, and scientific works and systems also speak to this ensemble of human needs.”

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Existential Studies: An Introduction by Rohan Roberts is a beginner’s guide to a few of the mind-expansive topics that fall under this broad area of human knowledge. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to a range of ideas, including human origins, scientific investigation, mystical insight, the nature of reality, the meaning of truth, the purpose of life and much more.

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Written in a style that is easily accessible to young readers and old, Existential Studies is a must-read for anyone with a deep concern for ultimate issues in life and those seeking answers to the big questions.

Zen has flourished in Japan for over seven centuries. It has had a profound impact on almost all aspects of Japanese sensibilities, culture, art, and aesthetics. Since the 1950s, with the rise of the beat generation and the subsequent flower-power counter-culture movement in California,  there was an increased interest in Zen and other Eastern Philosophies. Philosophers like Alan Watts and D. T. Suzuki were instrumental in sharing these ideas with the West.

Demystifying Zen: Satori for a Secular Mind by Rohan Roberts is an illustrated exploration of Zen concepts from a secular perspective. Written in a style that is minimalist and nuanced, it is a beginner’s guide to some of the profound themes and concepts associated with Zen. The book explores experiences such as satori, nirvana, and trishna, and also analyses various Zen koans, quotes, poems, parables, and anecdotes. It will undoubtedly appeal to those with an existential mindset and a spiritual bent.