Remember all that happened at the university last year?  Check out the Sabancı University 2010 Almanac for a refresher. Here are some memorable events:

Sabancı University 2010 Almanac

Sabancı University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences is proud to announce the first Graduate Student Essay Competition honoring Mevhibe Ateş.  The general aim of the competition is to promote academic research and discussion on democracy and human rights.

In 2011, the theme of the competition is “the rule of law”.  We invite scholarly papers on topics such as the relationship between legality and legitimacy, the role of constitution-making in consolidation of democracy, the emergence of constitutional courts in democratic countries, and the place of judicial review in democracies.  All submissions must be based on original unpublished research, empirical or theoretical, and are expected to offer innovative, comparative perspectives.  Submissions will be evaluated by a blind review process.

The rules to participate in the competition are as follows:

1. The author, at the time of the submission, must be enrolled in a degree-granting program at a university.
2. Each submission must be original work by a single author and it must not be under consideration elsewhere.
3. Submissions must be sent by email to mevhibeates@sabanciuniv.edu

Essay guidelines: All essays must be around 6,000-8,000 words, 12 font, double spaced, and in English. 

Prizes to be granted in the competition are:

1.    First prize: 1500 $
2.    Second prize: 1000 $
3.    Third prize: 500 $

Deadline for submissions is March 31, 2011. The announcement of the prizes will take place during the Graduate Workshop to be held at Sabanci University in May 2011.  The exact date of the workshop will be announced.

Sabancı University Founding President Professor Tosun Terzioğlu and Istanbul Policy Center Founding Director Professor Üstün Ergüder were given the “Emeritus Professor” title.  Attending the ceremony at Sabancı University were Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı, Board of Trustees members, President Professor Nihat Berker, faculty members, students and employees.

Speaking at the ceremony, Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı said, “When the Sabancı family and our teammates set off years ago, we had a dream of an education institution that did not exist at the time.  Our premise was simple: ‘Why not?’  We showed courage and ambition to do the things we thought to be right, even if it was the more difficult path to take.  We built this institution from scratch, empowered by the capable leaders that took us to different levels.

Institutions bear the mark of their leaders.  Both Founding Professor Tosun Terzioğlu and the Founding Director of the IPC, Üstün Ergüder, led us by example and were crucial to our advancement.”

Sabancı University President Professor Nihat Berker said, “Great institutions need great people.  Great people contribute to institutions greatly with their personalities, experience and knowledge.  Institutions that have these people are very fortunate.  We are doubly fortunate.”  Berker added that he enjoyed working with Professors Terzioğlu and Ergüder, and that universities grow with the presence of such valuable individuals.  Berker then presented Professors Terzioğlu and Ergüder with their custom-built chairs that bear their names, signifying his wish that they would stay with the institution for years to come. 

At his speech, Sabancı University Founding President Professor Tosun Terzioğlu said, “It is a great honor to be here today.  When I look back, I realize that I began my career 42 years ago.  Since then, I have had a wealth of administrative experience.  I have been an administrator for 27 years.  I have always learned, always listened.  I learned lots from the people I listened to.  I did not talk much, but always loved to learn.  For me, participation at Sabancı University always had great importance.  We have a Declaration of Academic Freedoms that many of us are proud of.”  Terzioğlu added, “The university is not me, not Ms. Sabancı, nor the individual students.  The university is a house of contradictions.  There is the faculty, like myself, and then there are the students: young people 17-18 years of age.  They have the energy, we have the experience.  It befalls all of us to process the underlying wealth and come up with rare gems.  Tosun Terzioğlu said that the purpose of the university was to learn, and continued, “The university is an adventure in learning.  This is the same for me, and the same for our young students.  It is hard to organize these adventures.  Everyone learns from each other.  This is not always what is expected in Turkey.  This reminds me of herds of sheep.  There is the herd, the shepherd, a dog, and a ram with a bell around its neck.  The herd follows in their footsteps.  This is not what is expected of a school.  No university should be like this.”

Istanbul Policy Center Founding Director Professor Üstün Ergüder said, “I came to Sabancı University following a long career, when I was 63.  From 1948 to 2000, I had been a part of Robert College.  I went to the UK and received my doctorate in the USA.  When I came back, the place was called Boğaziçi University.  The deeds of the Council for Higher Education and other institutions felt like betrayal.  I became an administrator to battle with these.  My life was spent there.  If someone had told me that I would switch institutions at the age of 63 and adopt the new place as my own, I would not have believed them.”  Üstün Ergüder added that he was very satisfied with the 8 years he spent at Sabancı University, and that he would continue to serve in this institution.
 
Emeritus Professorship at Sabancı University
Emeritus professorship at Sabancı University is bestowed on distinguished professors in good standing who have made great contributions to the university and society in general, and who retire after 68 years of age.  Candidates are nominated by the Faculty Dean and must be approved by the President followed by the Board of Trustees.

In addition to attracting new and superior talent, Sabancı University aims to actively utilize the vast talents, knowledge and expertise of experienced faculty members with the emeritus professorship title.  The title ensures that the scientific efforts and productivity of retired professors are supported, and that they take part in university activities.

Special Economic Seminar program presented by Dr. Motoshige ITO, Professor of Tokyo University,

Seminar will be held at DEIK TOBB Plaza / Levent on Dec/17 Friday between 14.00pm-16.00pm as the last event of "2010 Japan Year in Turkey''.

Our current Fitness Center's capacity has been increased and it's wellness function has been improved with the renewal of all fitness equipment in scope of developing fitness technologies.

It will be our pleasure to have you join us for the “Opening of The New Fitness Center” on Wednesday, December 15th at 4 pm.

The competition is open to all scholars in the social sciences with special interest on contemporary Turkey. The essays submitted to the competition should address the issues and challenges that are related to Turkish attempts to position and re-evaluate Turkish foreign policy to the increasingly fluid environment of world politics that involves shifts and transitions of power. In particular, the authors should assess the benefits and challenges of Turkey’s newly discovered pro-active foreign policy that may lead to realignments and revaluation of Turkey’s traditional positioning in world politics.

The deadline for submissions is March 31st, 2011.

The Sakıp Sabancı International Research Award includes $20,000 for the first prize, $10,000 for the second, and $5,000 for the third. An independent, international jury will select the prize winners.

Conditions for the competition are:
•    All entries must be new and original works, not published previously in any form.
•    Essays must be approximately 13.000 words, including title, citations, and endnotes. (References should be shown in the form of endnotes.)
•    An abstract of 500 words embedded to the original essay and a short c.v. of the applicant are required.
•    Entries must be submitted in English, in the form of an attached Word document to the following address:

http://award.sabanciuniv.edu/submityourentry/
For further information: http://award.sabanciuniv.edu

The conference prodeedings of Sabancı University 4. Year Mechatronics Engineering undergraduate student Ebru Demir, which were co-authored by the Faculty Member of Mechatronics Engineering Program Dr. Ali Koşar and her research mates Muhsincan Şeşen,Nazlı Kaplan, Evrim Kurtoğlu and Hadi Çağdaş Erk were recently accepted to the one of the most attended and popular Mechanical Engineering international conference IMECE 2010.

The conference proceedings of titles "Jet Impingement Cooling of Nanostructured. Plates” and "The Effect of Micro Pin-Fin Shape on the Heat Transfer Performance of Micro Pin-Fin Heat Sinks"were successfully presented in the conference place Vancouver, Canada and attractedmuchattention of the Micro & Nano Technology community. These proceedings will be alsopublishe in the Conference Proceedings Book of the conference. In addition, Ebru Demirsuccessfull presented her poster in the very well attended ASME Society-Wide Micro & NanoTechnology Forum as part of IMECE 2010 conference, where new research directions, cutting edgere search and new developments on nanotechnology were included.

Sabancı University President Professor Nihat Berker:
The functions of Sabancı University, the international events we host, and the achievements of our students and alumni carry us into prestigious lists.  It is also noteworthy that Sabancı University, with a total fund allowance of more than TL 50 million for hundreds of research projects undertaken since 2000, ranks first among universities in Turkey in terms of EU research funds per faculty member.

Sabancı University was included among the top 200 universities in Europe on the QS List.*  With its top ten dominated by British universities, the list was based on points in “Peer Review”, “Employer Review”, “Faculty Students”, “Citations Faculty”, “Internatianal Faculty” and “International Students” categories.

At the University Ranking by Academic Performance** (URAP) laboratory founded at the Middle East Technical University and governed by 7 former university presidents, Sabancı University was ranked second among private universities and 11th among all universities in Turkey.  The URAP study detailed the academic performances of 125 universities in Turkey and considered field and publication numbers in open and reliable sources such as YÖK, ÖSYM, ISI Web of Science and Google Scholar, number of publications per person, number of references per person, number of Google Scholar publications, number of Google Scholar publications per person, number of doctoral students, percentage of doctoral students, and number of students per person – all measures of scientific productivity.

Sabancı University among the top 2000 universities of the world
Sabancı University was among the “Top 2000 Universities of the World” list*** created at the “International Ranking by Academic Performance Symposium” held by URAP.  When creating the ranking system, performance data was collected for 2500 institutions and each institution was graded in accordance with the announced criteria.  The top 2000 institutions comprised the list.  The URAP ranking is regarded as one of the most comprehensive rankings available.

“We aim higher in global and European rankings.”
On global and European rankings, Sabancı University President Professor Nihat Berker said, “as of the inaugural 1999-2000 academic year, Sabancı University has transformed higher education in Turkey.  In as little time as a decade, we became one of the top universities in Turkey and across Europe.  We are among the top 200 universities in Europe in the QS ranking.  We believe that we will climb this ladder in the years to come.”

President Berker added, “One of the core features of Sabancı University, in addition to the success of the publications by its faculty, is its social and global initiatives.  Functions such as the Istanbul Policy Center, the Nanotechnology Research and Application Center and the ongoing work for the Istanbul International Energy and Climate Center, the international events that we host, and the worldwide achievements of our students and alumni carry us into prestigious lists.  President Berker explained that it was also noteworthy that Sabancı University, with a total fund allowance of more than TL 50 million for hundreds of research projects undertaken since 2000, ranks first among universities in Turkey in terms of EU research funds per faculty member.

President Berker noted that the URAP was an important effort to strengthen the position of Turkey on the international academic platform, and that it would lead to better and more productive cooperation among universities in Turkey in addition to transparent, free competition – which reflects the philosophy of the Competition Forum managed by Sabancı University and TÜSİAD.

* Top 200 European Universities 2010, August 2010
** University Ranking by Academic Performance (URAP), Ranking of All Universities and Ranking of Private Universities, October 2010
*** URAP “Top 2000 Universities of the World”, December 2010

IC Movie Night is again bringing us together with a popular movie. We will be watching "Five Minarets in New York" together.

Nihat Berker will be meeting you at the PAC before and during the intermission.

Popcorn and beverages also will be offered during the movie.

Have a good time in advance...
Information Center

Date: 14 December 2010
Time: 20:00
Location: Sabancı University Performing Arts Center

Title: Five Minarets in New York
Plot Summary: Leader of a radical islamic organization, Anti Christ whose name turned out to be a phenomenon that was sought with red notice by Interpol was reported to have been taken into custody in the USA. In order to fetch the convict, the most successful policemen of the Turkish Police Department fly to the USA. Everything from then on seems easy but things are never the same as they seem. The story taking place within İstanbul, New York, and Bitlis triangle challenges the recent-era Turkey and underlines America's paranoia with the islamic world after 9/11.
Director: Mahsun Kırmızıgül
Writer: Mahsun Kırmızıgül
Cast: Haluk Bilginer, Engin Altan Düzyatan, Ali Sürmeli, Danny Glover, Mahsun Kırmızıgül, Onur Ünsal, Salih Kalyon, Robert Patrick, Zafer Ergin, Gina Gershon, Hüseyin Avni Danyal, Mustafa Sandal
Genre: Action
Duration: 110 minutes
Official web site: http://www.newyorktabesminare.com

* Latecomers will not be allowed into the auditorium once the intermission has begun. Latecomers are seated in available seating at the balcony.

** Ring service will be available from PAC to shuttle area after the Event.
 
For more information
E-mail: reference@sabanciuniv.edu

Phone: 0216 483 92 27-28