The CDP Russia Climate Change Report 2014 was revealed at an event in Moscow as part of the CDP Russia initiative implemented by the Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum in association with the Coca Cola Foundation.

The CDP Russia Climate Change Report 2014 focuses on Russia’s business response to climate change including management, corporate strategies, as well as climate risks and opportunities.  Data for the report was collected directly from the largest Russian companies who were asked on behalf of hundreds of international corporate investors to respond to CDP’s standard climate change questionnaire.

2014 saw the highest rates of response from Russian business to CDP under new management by the Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, with 14 companies responding to the questionnaire.  The list of respondents include Russian energy giants Gazprom, LUKOIL, NOVATEK, Surgutneftegas, the biggest Russian steel-maker EVRAZ, Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill and other well-known market players. Some companies did not submit their data directly but referred to these data having been included in the responses submitted by their parent companies outside Russia.

Responses submitted by the companies were assessed by the EY Russia team using CDP’s scoring methodology and the companies were ranked from top to bottom with regard to their efforts and achievements in climate disclosure and performance. During the conference in Moscow, the top-scoring companies were recognized and celebrated. In 2014, the top climate disclosure score was demonstrated by Arkhangelsk Pulp and Paper Mill, a newcomer to CDP climate program. Gazprom, NOVATEK and EVRAZ were also acknowledged for their continuous efforts and commitment to climate disclosing through CDP.

The foreword to the report was written by CDP CEO Paul Simpson, and the introduction to the report was written by Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum and CDP Turkey Director Dr. Melsa Ararat.  According to the report, 89% of companies integrate climate change to their business strategies, the managements of 33% of the companies take measures to encourage efforts against climate change, and 56% of companies establish targets for reducing carbon emissions.

The report suggests that one of the critical risks in Russia is the change in physical climate parameters.  Changes arising out of climate-related developments are viewed as opportunities.  The report considers changes due to statutory amendments both as risks and as opportunities.

Out of all respondents, 78% disclosed their direct (Scope 1) and 67% disclosed their indirect (Scope 2) emission data.  The respondents that commission independent third parties to validate their data comprise 33% of all companies.
Now that the Russian government is undertaking to introduce GHG reporting and regulation, CDP report and conference are seen as testing-the-ground exercise that shows the level of Russian business’ readiness and willingness to deal with climate change and to disclose relevant information to investors, customers, government and other interested parties. 

The report and the conference attracted a lot of interest. More than 100 participants attended the conference representing Ministries, Russian business, governmental bodies, non-government and international organizations, foreign guests and media.

The bilingual report (Russian and English) is available at: https://www.cdp.net/CDPResults/CDP-Russia-climate-change-report-2014.pdf

The CAP (Company Action Projects) Competition held as part of the School of Management’s MBA Program concluded.  Nine teams competed in the event.


The Best CAP Award went to the Microsoft Open Academy team of Berk Kocaman and Nazlı Kocaman, the Best CAP Presentation Award went to the Coca Cola İçecek team of Büşra Durmuş, Catalina Barcenas Santos and Elnur Aliev, and the Best CAP Report Award was given to the Yıldız Holding team composed of Anum Amin Ali, Chitrali Das, Coşay Kaçar and Mohsin Iqbal Ghaziani.

he jury panel of the CAP Competition included KPMG Corporate Financing Services Department Head and Partner Hande Şenova, Accenture Financial Services Department Director Erdal Güner and AT Kearney Partner Micheal Weiss.

14th ELAE result code explanations are as follows:

SL (Satisfactory in the ELAE): indicates students who have received the required grade or above in the January 14th ELAE and who have gained the right to start their faculty studies as Spring (irregular) Freshman in the 2014-2015 Spring Semester.

EL: (Exempt from the ELAE): indicates students who are exempt from the January 14th ELAE. These students have already gained the right to start their faculty courses in the 2014-2015 Spring Semester.

UL (Unsatisfactory in the ELAE): indicates students who have not been able to obtain the required grade in the ELAE.*

NA (Non-attendance): indicates students who did not attend the exam and is equivalent to a “UL” grade*.

Grade bands are as below:

Postgraduate candidates who have taken the January 14th ELAE will be informed of their results by their faculties.

A Placement Exam will be given to inactive/prepared outside students who want to continue at FDY on the 19th of January at 9 a.m. They should contact to SL Directorate on the 16th of January at 4 p.m. latest.

IMPORTANT: Students have the right to study FDY only for the two years following their initial registration at SU.

Please see the link for your ELAE results.

We wish you success in your studies,

The School of Languages Directorate

Materials Science and Engineering 2009 Master’s Graduate Canan Dağdeviren celebrates yet another achievement.  Canan was named on the “30 Under 30” list of the best young scientists in the world compiled by Forbes magazine.

As the only Turkish scientist on the Forbes list, Canan implemented her award-winning “battery-free cardiac pacemaker” project last November.  The chip developed by Canan converts the kinetic energy of heartbeats to electricity, powering the pacemaker without the use of batteries.  Canan calls her invention a “wearable pacemaker” which is a thin film that converts the energy released by the movements of the heart, diaphragm and lungs to electrical energy, and stores it.

Canan said the following: “The heart is vital to all humans and beats 40 million times per year.  I wanted to design a flexible device that would be attached to the surface of the heart to convert its mechanical energy to electrical energy, and I succeeded.  Although conventional cardiac pacemakers have useful lives varying between 5 to 7 years and have to be replaced by a risky operation, these pacemakers generate all the energy they need to run, and eliminate the necessity of multiple pacemaker operations.  I wanted the heart to be self-sufficient and the device to be harmless to the heart.  My design obtains the energy it requires from the body.”

Curated by Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences member Ayşe Gül Altınay and Işın Önol, the “Mobilizing Memory: Women Witnessing” exhibition held at Depo in September and October 2014 was extensively featured in the international feminist art journal n.paradoxa.

The UK-based international feminist art journal n.paradoxa contains an extensive coverage of the “Mobilizing Memory: Women Witnessing” exhibition organized by Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Forum, Columbia Global Centers l Turkey, and Columbia University Center for the Study of Social Differences and DEPO.  The coverage includes interviews with curators Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences member Ayşe Gül Altınay and Işın Önol discussing the purpose of the exhibition, the preparation process, and the contributions of the artists to discussions on issues of gender, memory and war.

Featuring the works of woman artists from Turkey and the world, the exhibition will be available for viewing at the Kuntshalle Exnergasse in Vienna between March 17th and April 3rd, 2015.  The exhibition will be accompanied by panel discussions and talks.

Initially held at Depo in September and October 2014, the exhibition included works by artists Gülçin Aksoy, Hera Büyüktaşçıyan, Silvina Der-Meguerditchian, Hakikat Adalet Hafıza Merkezi (Center for Truth, Justice and Memory), Gülsün Karamustafa, Susan Meiselas, Nar Photos (Serra Akcan, Fatma Çelik, Gülşin Ketenci, Aylin Kızıl, Serpil Polat), Lorie Novak, Emine Gözde Sevim and Aylin Tekiner.

The feminist art work displayed in this exhibit imagines memory as part of a larger  politics of resistance.  It mobilizes memories of past and present violence precisely to create the conditions and the motivations for social change. Bringing together women artists many of whom are themselves direct witnesses to oppression and terror, the exhibit also reveals moments of resilience, resistance, and creative survival. The artists gathered here use memory in innovative ways.  They foreground unofficial acts of witness and forms of commemoration--embodied practices, performances, photography, testimony, street actions—that provide alternative histories and different political imaginaries than do official archives, memorials, museums, and state commemorations.  They make visible not only violent crimes and their gendered dimensions, but also the intimate texture of lives and communities that have survived or are fighting to survive immense destruction.
 
Exhibition Catalog: http://socialdifference.columbia.edu/publications/mobilizing-memory-women-witnessing-exhibition-catalogue/

n.paradoxa: http://www.ktpress.co.uk/nparadoxa-volume-details.asp?volumeid=35

Kuntshalle Exnergasse: http://www.wuk.at/WUK/KUNST/Kunsthalle_Exnergasse/KEX

KASA Galeri invites audiences to the re-produced world of possibilities of anonymity where they can create together and experience the practice of sharing.

Sabancı University KASA Galeri reopens its doors after 5 years with an exhibition titled “ANONYMOUS.” As an alternative and independent artistic sphere, Kasa designed its relaunch exhibition with artists who prefer to remain anonymous.  The “ANONYMOUS” exhibition will be available for visiting at Sabancı University Kasa Galeri between January 14th and March 8th, 2015.

Modesty and excellence had been the cornerstones of Kasa when first opened, and the relaunch is not only significant in its institutional history, but along the lines of the artistic and political mood of the day as well.  This attitude may be the way Kasa will design its exhibitions in the future.  Kasa Galeri resumes its journey with the ambition of becoming a medium of knowledge sharing among a non-hierarchical administrative team and between this team and the artists they will cooperate with.

This may be the right time to envisage new formats, new platforms, and new artistic attitudes that contain a fair amount of sharing rather than the will to become a star.  Under market conditions where artists turn into celebrity icons, anonymity as a strategy has been adopted in art circles long ago, and the assertions of artists and artist groups that emphasize collective production and anonymity are viable methods.  Kasa’s relaunch event “ANONYMOUS” revisits the act of being alternative as defined by anonymity, and asserts a critical context regarding work of art/artist identity, original/copy and property/value.

KASA Galeri invites audiences to the re-produced world of possibilities of anonymity where they can create together and experience the practice of sharing between January 14th and March 8th, 2015.

“ANONYMOUS”
Sabancı University Kasa Galeri
January 14th – March 8th, 2015

Opening Date: Wednesday, January 14th 
Time         : 6.00 pm
Address    : Bankalar Caddesi No:2, Minerva Han, Karaköy

Tel: (0212) 292 4939(0212) 292 4939


http://kasagaleri.sabanciuniv.edu/

The theme for the 2015 Sakıp Sabancı International Research Awards was chosen as “Living Together, Dialogue & Cooperation within Diversity in Turkey."  Deadline for submissions is January 15, 2015.

The Sakıp Sabancı International Research Award entails a Jury Prize awarded to an individual who has made distinguished contributions on the above-mentioned theme.  In addition to the Jury Prize, Essay Awards will be given to researchers under 45 years of age.  Awardees will be selected by an independent and international jury.

THIS YEAR’S THEME IS:

Few would disagree that one of the most pressing issues facing Turkey today concerns living together, dialogue and cooperation within diversity. Following the trajectory of modern nation-states, the Turkish Republic imagined a community sharing a common language, ethnicity, religion, cultural tradition, and social philosophy. However, the Republic was founded upon the ruins of a multilingual, multiethnic, multireligious, multicultural Empire characterized by great diversity. Everyday practices of living together between different communities were disrupted by war and mass violence. During the last few decades, the Pandora’s box of the past has opened, and citizens of Turkey are faced with the task of coming to terms with the past in order to achieve coexistence and peace. What are the lessons of the past for devising contemporary ways of living together? What can be learned from the experiences of particular communities and economic/social groups, especially those that have suffered violence, discrimination, and exclusion in the past and/or in the present? Widespread public debate and successful mobilization on the basis of identity politics and human rights by/for diverse peoples of this land in recent years demonstrates the robustness of civil society in Turkey. Yet the experience of violence and the in exibility and resistance of the nation-state, whether at the level of the military, governments, the mass media, or individuals and groups in society, has led to greater polarization, making the possibility of living together ever more difficult. What are the
political, economic, social, historical, and cultural factors that contribute to polarization and stand in the way of engaging in constructive dialogue and cooperation? How can political, legal, economic, social, cultural, moral, and affective structures and practices be mobilized to mend the rupture among groups and individuals? How can dialogue and cooperation between institutions and individuals representing different political and social persuasions be enhanced?

Essays providing path-breaking theoretical analyses and innovative suggestions on this theme are welcome.

Conditions for the Essay Award competition are:
• All entries, which may be coauthored, must be new and original works, not published previously in any form.

• Essays must be of the format and size of a regular academic journal article (25 to 35 pages, in double-space format, including references).

• An abstract of 500 words embedded into the original essay and a short CV of the author(s) are required.

• Entries must be submitted in English, in the form of a Word document to the following address:
http://award.sabanciuniv.edu/submityourentry/

A scientific study conducted with the collaboration of Sabancı University, Anadolu University (AÜ), Atatürk University and Yeditepe University discovered that the use of “boron nitride” may heal broken bones up to 50% faster with no medication or risk of infection.

Dr. Feray Bakan, a researcher at the Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM) said that the project is composed of four six modules and that the work at Sabancı University was focused on advanced material characterization with project code 112M592.

Prior to the project application, Dr. Feray Bakan developed hydroxyapatite-boron nitride composites with varying properties in 2011, and in vitro and in vivo studies on these materials showed a potential for healing fractured bones, which then led to the project application phase.  Only 9 projects were chosen to receive support within this call.

Composite materials produced at Anadolu University as part of the project are manufactured according to the composite specifications developed by Dr. Feray Bakan during pre-trials, and the extensive equipment facilities at the Sabancı University Nanotechnolgy Research and Application Center are used for investigating the advanced structural and morphological properties of these materials.

Atatürk and Yeditepe Universities are tasked with medical and biological studies.  A Turkish patent titled “The use of the boron mineral and derivatives alone or in combinations with hydroxyapatite for the treatment of bone fractures and coating biomaterials” was obtained in 2012 for the composite material developed during pre-trials.

The study will conclude in 2015.

Feray Bakan
Dr. Feray Bakan received her PhD from the Chemical Engineering Department of Atatürk University.  Her dissertation was on “The Production of Nano-Scale Hydroxyapatite for Biomedical Applications.”  She received her degree in 2011 and started postdoctoral research in the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Sabancı University on “The Examination of Surfaces at Atomic Resolutions with Liquid-Immersed Non-Contact Atomic Force Microscopy (nc-AFM)” where she gained experience on advanced characterization techniques for a variety of materials.  Dr. Bakan has been a researcher at the Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM) since December 2012.  Dr. Bakan works on biocompatible nanocomposites, surface modifications of implant materials for cell development, and biocompatible shape-memory alloys.

Dear Students,

According to the announcement made by İstanbul Governorship just now; Primary schools and secondary schools will abort educational activities on January 8th, 2015 (Thursday).

Due to bad weather conditions;

January 8, 2015, Thursday final exams are postponed and they will be held on Sunday (January 11, 2015) at same time and place.

Best wishes..

Established by the Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Forum in memory of academic and activist Dicle Koğacıoğlu, this year’s awards were presented on Saturday, December 27 at a ceremony following a student conference at the Minerva Palas in Karaköy.  First prize went to Pınar Karababa Kayalıgil, second prize to Aslı Zengin, and third prize to Melike Gül Demir.  The Honorable Mention was awarded to Derya Acuner.

The student conference began with introductory remarks by Tuğçe Ellialtı, a graduate of the Sabancı University master’s program in Cultural Studies, and a PhD student and lecturer in the University of Pennsylvania.  Ellialtı, a PhD student in Sociology whose particular field of study is “Gender Equity under Legal Reforms and Sociopolitical Transformation: Sexual Violence in Court Hearings in Turkey,” gave a speech titled “Dicle Koğacıoğlu in the Eyes of a Student.”

Introductory remarks were followed by the first panel discussion, moderated by Nişantaşı University Faculty Member Nil Mutluer.  Speaking in the panel were Pınar Karababa Kayalıgil from the Middle East Technical University with her paper titled “Opening Rooms: How Women Create Their Own Living Spaces” and Derya Acuner from Istanbul Bilgi University on “Demonized City Streets: Comments on the Urban Experience of Women.”  Speaking on city streets, Derya Acuner said “The streets may be the sphere of the establishment, but they are also the sphere of discord.”  Pınar Karababa Kayalıgil spoke on her work conducted with women living in the province of Sivas.

The papers in the second panel were by Aslı Zengin from the University of York on “The Lethal World of Love: Family, Friends and Trans Women Funerals”  and by Melike Gül Demir from Maltepe University on “Holding onto ‘Peace’ in the Peripheries of the City: Village Evacuations As Told by Kurdish Women”.  The moderator of the panel was Sabancı University Faculty Member Ayşe Gül Altınay.  In her paper, Aslı Zengin focused on the deaths and funerals of trans women and their exclusion by their biological families.  Zengin argued that “indebtedness” was the most important relationship that shaped the family, and that “family” meant “exclusion” for LGBT individuals.  Aslı Zengin said, “The experiences of trans women with illness and death are the result of heteroproductive children preserving their bodies.”

In the second paper, Melike Gül Demir discussed her work with women who have migrated from Diyarbakır, Urfa and Siirt to Istanbul.  Melike Gül Demir said that women traced the beginning of their ordeals to the day their village was burned down.  Demir noted that women admit to working at the same level with men when at the party, yet treating their daughters in a patriarchal manner back at home.  Melike Gül Demir also explained that women do not feel trusted by men when making decisions despite their cooperation and comradeship in the party.

Dicle Koğacıoğlu Awards aim to support gender-focused studies on the society and culture in Turkey and to encourage young researchers.  Also attending the Dicle Koğacıoğlu Article Awards Ceremony were Dicle Koğacıoğlu’s family, friends, colleagues and students.