SiriusXM radio inventor Martine Rothblatt added as SXSW keynote

Martine Rothblatt, creator of SiriusXM Satellite Radio, will be a keynote speaker at SXSW Interactive on Sunday, March 15.

On Thursday, South by Southwest Interactive announced the second of its five keynote speakers for the 2015 festival: inventor and futurist Martine Rothblatt. Rothblatt will speak Sunday, March 15, in a conversation with New York Magazine contributing editor Lisa Miller.

Rothblatt is best known as the creator of the technology behind SiriusXM Satellite Radio and is that company's former chair and CEO. She's now chair and CEO of United Therapeutics Corp., a biotechnology company focused on ending infertility, disease and even death. Rothblatt wrote the book, "Virtually Human: The Promise — and the Peril — of Digital Immortality."

Rothblatt is also known as an activist on transgender issues and a tinkerer in the world of robotics.

The announcement is part of a busy couple of weeks for the festival. On Monday, it announced a round of about 500 panels. Before that, it announced a set of convergence speakers, a style track

, featured speakers and the first keynote, MoMA senior curator Paola Antonelli.

The festival runs March 13-17.

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Omar L. Gallaga

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