WIDS Istanbul is a technical conference featuring inspiring women in Data Science. The WiDS Conferences, the first of which was organized by Stanford University in 2015, have gradually increased their activity and ultimately grown into a worldwide series of conferences with more than 150 local events spanning over 60 countries each year. On May 21, 2022, our Women in Data Science Istanbul Conference event will take place under the leadership of Stanford University with the support of the Sabancı University Data Analytics Center of Excellence (VERİM). 

Join us at this virtual event on May 21, 2022 to discover the latest research on data science, learn where and how leading companies utilize data, and connect with potential mentors and collaborators in the field.  

For the Event Schedule: WiDS Istanbul Event Schedule 

*Participation in the event is free-of-charge and the Zoom Webinar link will be sent to your registered e-mail address. The language of the event is English.

Click to register.

Organized by Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM), the Nano Open Webinars continue with a webinar entitled “UV-curable polymeric materials" that will be delivered by Tülay Yılmaz İnan (Researcher at SUNUM) at 11:00 on Wednesday, May 11, 2022.

The petroleum-based products and the resulting negative impact on the environment, plus the scarcity of nonrenewable resources, are just a few of many factors that have encouraged the scientific community to find more sustainable and environmentally responsible solutions for these problems. Radiation curable applications have been recognized as an innovative and sustainable technology since this technique combines number of advantages such as low energy consumption, less environmental pollution, and very rapid curing even at ambient temperatures.

Dr. Tülay İnan will talk about UV-curable polymeric materials applications mainly on coatings and intraocular lens applications - cataract lens (IOL) produced using this method.

The Nano Open Webinar will take place at 11:00-12:00 on Wednesday, May 11 on Zoom. The online event link will be shared via e-mail on the day of the event. The registration link is; otolab.sabanciuniv.edu

About Tülay Yılmaz İnan

Tülay Yılmaz İnan, worked as a senior scientist at Saudi Aramco. She has 26 years of R&D experience, mainly in synthesis and characterizations of different types of polymers, high-performance polymers, UV-curable polymers, water-based polymers, coatings, fuel cell membranes, value-added products from natural resources (humic acid, terpenes, zeolite, and bentonite), polymeric composites, etc. She has 41 international publications, 7 patents, and over 60 national and international symposium posters or oral presentations. Inan holds a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Istanbul Technical University, Istanbul, Turkey and an associate prof. degree in polymer chemistry.

After a long break due to the pandemic, the Sabancı University alumni living in the United Kingdom got together on Saturday, May 7, 2022.   

Organized in Green Park, London with the kind cooperation of our SU Alumni Ambassador in London, Bora Bekiroğlu, the gathering was attended by 50 Sabancı University alumni including some of the first alumni as well as alumni from all generations.

David Hockney's The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020, organized by the Sakıp Sabancı Museum with the support of Akbank, opens on Wednesday, May 11^th. The exhibition consists of 116 iPad paintings heralding the arrival of spring. David Hockney, one of the most inspiring artists of the 20th and 21st centuries, made them on his iPad at his home in Normandy, during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The iPad paintings in The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020; depict a landscape filled with fruit trees, bushes, flower beds, ponds and rivers, fields, and distant hills; capturing the annual cycle of spring from bare trees to buds, flowers, and abundant green foliage. The exhibition is a celebration of spring, reminding us of the miracles of the natural world and its constant renewal.

A press conference for The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 was held with the participation of Dr. Nazan Ölçer, Director of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum; Suzan Sabancı Dinçer, the Executive Chairperson of Akbank; and Edith Devaney, the curator of The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020.

At the meeting, SSM Director Dr. Nazan Ölçer said, ‘We are excited and proud to host the exhibition, The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020, in which works by one of the most significant artists of our time, David Hockney, have come to Turkey for the first time, on the twentieth anniversary of the Sakıp Sabancı Museum. Throughout the long history of humanity’s surrender to the frightening power of nature, spring has always been the symbol of rebirth, of emerging from darkness. With spring, the darkness is now illuminated, living beings are awakened from their long slumber; the mother earth, the origin of all life, spreads seeds of fertility, and this cycle continues forever.

With his lifetime of wisdom, and utilizing 21st century technology, David Hockney has faithfully recorded each moment of nature’s reawakening through the season and invites us to witness a spring ritual in The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020. The exhibition is, in essence, the story of a season from beginning to end, acting almost as a blessing. With this show, David Hockney reminds us of the miracles of nature, the constant and irrepressible renewal of the cycle of life, and of his often-repeated theme: ‘love life’. I hope that this exhibition, celebrating the rebirth of nature and spring, will be a source of hope and joy for all of us, after an immensely difficult two-year period of global lockdowns, in which we were all disconnected from the real world. I would like to thank our perpetual collaborator Akbank, and its Executive Chairperson, dear Suzan Sabancı Dinçer.

I salute the great artist, David Hockney. I would like to express my gratitude to him for creating these inspiring artworks and for choosing us for their exhibition, following the Royal Academy of Arts in London and Bozar in Brussels, and before the final venue at the Art Institute of Chicago. These artworks, as pure and naive as children's paintings, are gifts from David Hockney, an ageless artist, to the people of an ageless world.’

Expressing her joy at the biennial collaboration between Akbank and the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, hosting significant representatives and movements of contemporary art in Istanbul, Akbank's Executive Chairperson, Suzan Sabancı Dinçer, said, 'This year, with the Sakıp Sabancı Museum, we are hosting David Hockney, one of the eminent artists of our time, with this magnificent exhibition titled 'The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020', highlighting the joy of spring in nature. This major project, which will have a global impact, is David Hockney's first large-scale exhibition in Turkey. We are incredibly proud to be able to promote Istanbul and our country properly through this exhibition.'

Edith Devaney, curator of The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 exhibitions, said, ’First of all, I am happy to be in Istanbul on a beautiful spring day. I would like to thank my dear colleague Dr. Nazan Ölçer and her team for making Sakıp Sabancı Museum the third museum venue to host the exhibition displayed at the Royal Academy of Arts last year, and then at Bozar in Brussels. I would also like to thank Akbank and its Executive Chairperson, Suzan Sabancı Dinçer, for supporting the exhibition.

David Hockney is regarded by critics and historians as a crucial artist of the 20th and 21st centuries. The mass fascination with Hockney makes him a phenomenon in the art world. He has always followed his own artistic interests and many curiosities. While doing this, he did not care for trends, turned to his past and to his deep knowledge and interest in art history, which is often expressed in his artworks. He believed that his use of technology was about discovering new ways of painting, although his interest in technology was sometimes misinterpreted. Indeed, in an interview, he said that Van Gogh and Monet would love iPad for the same reasons he did.

In his own words, David Hockney is an artist who has depicted ‘the arrival of spring’ before. In 2011, he produced works using the iPad for the first time in Yorkshire, and these were displayed in the ‘A Bigger Picture’ exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. This was Hockney's first work produced using this new tool. In 2013, he took up the same subject, this time, depicting spring in a series of charcoal-on-paper works in Yorkshire. In 2020, he decided to capture the spring in Normandy, but this time, the pandemic began. With the idea of drawing colours more freely, and working in layers, he chose the iPad once again. David Hockney knew that the speed with which to see a scene, a subject and capture its salient and fleeting aspects is fast on the iPad. Besides, there was no need for canvas preparation or mixing the paint and then waiting for it to dry. He produced 116 images in a period of four months. The sheer beauty of the paintings in Monet's garden in nearby Giverny was a source of inspiration for Hockney during his time in Normandy. The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020 gives the viewer a strong sense of the unfolding of time. I believe that all art lovers will leave this exhibition with extraordinarily pleasant feelings.’

The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020, opening at the Sakıp Sabancı Museum with Akbank’s support between May 11 and July 29, also heralds a return to face-to-face events within the scope of the exhibition. Spring will be experienced to the fullest at the SSM, with the children's education programs held as part of the SSM Learning Program, adult education programs under the title of Akbank Art Talks, as well as film screenings and workshops designed in collaboration with Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University.

Employees and students of Sabancı University can visit Sakıp Sabancı Museum free of charge.

Please click here for further information.

Hosted by Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum, under the sponsorship of Sabancı Holding, “The Prince’s Extraordinary World: Abdülmecid Efendi” exhibition, which offers a comprehensive perspective on Abdülmecid Efendi, the last heir and the last caliph of the Ottoman Empire, and the first and only caliph elected by the Turkish Grand National Assembly; has been extended until Sunday, 3 July due to the great interest it has attracted.

The exhibition titled “The Prince’s Extraordinary World: Abdülmecid Efendi” comprises Abdülmecid Efendi’s artworks, most of which are exhibited together for the first time. Apart from being a significant painter, he had taken on the patronage of many artists and institutions, and was also interested in calligraphy, music and literature. Along with his paintings, his letters, family photos, some of which remained unknown; menus and invitation cards for the numerous meals hosted in his mansion in Bağlarbaşı, rare documents and photographs, brochures and catalogues of the exhibitions he participated as an artist and art patron, concert and theater tickets of the programs he frequently attended and newspaper news about him are being showcased.

The exhibition “The Prince’s Extraordinary World: Abdülmecid Efendi” organized with the support of Sabancı Holding, can be visited at SSM until Sunday, July 3, between 10:00 – 18:00 except for Mondays, and 10:00 – 20:00 on Saturdays.

Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Research and Application Center (SU IMC) will attend JEC World 2022, the largest international gathering of the composites industry, which will take place on May 3-5 in Paris.

Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Research and Application Center (SU IMC), a leading industrial-scale research and technology development center in Istanbul / Turkey, is attending the leading international composites show, JEC World, for new collaborations.

SU IMC is an industrial-scale research, technology development, test and application center offering design, analysis, prototyping, manufacturing and process development services in relation to composite materials, additive manufacturing, and robotic manufacturing. All extent of composite and plastic material characterization, mechanical characterization and flammability tests and analysis are carried out in the center. SU IMC has certified with AS9100 aerospace certification and ISO 17025 laboratory test accreditation. SU IMC supports all industries in relation to composite materials, composite part production and additive manufacturing technologies. SU IMC provides an environment of basic and applied research, product development, graduate programs, and lifelong learning programs. It also serves as an open innovation center providing commercialization opportunities for integrated advanced manufacturing technologies as well as ISO 17025 accredited testing for composite and plastic materials.

In collaboration with Kordsa, SU IMC inaugurated the Composite Technology Center of Excellence which is a pioneer and an important example in Turkey with its university-industry business model. The Center aims to serve stakeholders throughout different stages of the R&D cycle, based on the customer’s requirements, starting with R&D, continuing with prototyping, and ending in mass production.

SU IMC’s CEO Devrim Özaydın, Composite Product and Technical Development Manager Ali Cansun, and Business Development Leader Aytaç Subaşı will be present at JEC World, HALL 6, D32, to collaborate and to create new partnerships.

For further information about SU IMC, please visit https://suimc.sabanciuniv.edu/tr

Organized by Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM), the Nano Open Webinars continue with a webinar entitled “Supercapacitors and Hybrid Hydrogen-Based Flow Batteries" that will be delivered by Dr. Barun K. Chakrabarti of the University of Warwick at 13:00 on Wednesday, April 27, 2022.

Hybrid hydrogen-based flow batteries (HFBs) are key enablers for the development of reliable large-scale energy storage systems; however, their high cost, limited cycle performance, and incompatibilities associated with the commonly used carbon-based electrodes undermine HFB’s commercial viability.  

Dr. Barun K. Chakrabarti will provide information about electrophoretic deposition (EPD), which is a highly convenient and demonstrated industrial operation for the manufacture of surface coatings, which is used more frequently in recent years to produce energy storage electrodes (notably for lithium-ion batteries, solid-state devices, supercapacitors, and flow batteries)

The Nano Open Webinar will take place at 13:00-14:00 on Wednesday, April 27 on Zoom. The online event link will be shared via e-mail on the day of the event.

The registration link is http://otolab.sabanciuniv.edu/SUNUMActivityRegistrationForm

The webinar will be held in English.

About Dr. Barun K. Chakrabarti:

Dr. Barun K. Chakrabarti is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in WMG at the University of Warwick. He completed his MEng in Chemical Engineering at Imperial College London and a PhD on Regenerative Fuel Cells at the University of Manchester, UK.

His current research focuses on hydrogen-based redox flow batteries, electrospinning, electrochemical regeneration of lithium-ion battery cathodic materials, and electrophoretic deposition of nanomaterials including graphene.

Sakıp Sabancı Center for Turkish Studies at Columbia University held Sakıp Sabancı Lecture on “Antiquities, Museums, Empires”.

Attended by Güler Sabancı, Founding Chair of Sabancı University Board of Trustees, Yusuf Leblebici, President of Sabancı University, who attended online, and Meltem Müftüler-Baç, Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the lecture had Zeynep Çelik, Sakıp Sabancı Visiting Professor of Turkish Studies at Columbia University, as the keynote speaker. The lecture was introduced by Timothy Mitchell, William B Ransford Professor of Middle Eastern Studies at Columbia University.

The lecture raised participants’ level of knowledge and awareness about Turkey through teaching and exchange of ideas.

CDP, the world’s biggest environmental reporting platform, of which Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum has been the partner in Turkey since 2010, held the 12th Climate Change Virtual Conference and Award Ceremony on Tuesday, April 19, 2022. Garanti BBVA was the main sponsor of the conference, during which CDP Climate Change & Water Program 2021 Turkey Results and CDP Leaders were announced.

The main speaker of the event, Gonzalo Muñoz Abogabir, High Level Climate Action Champion for the 25th Conference of the Parties (COP25), pointed out that he became more and more aware of the fact that for the private sector the cost of not acting about climate change was much higher than the cost of acting. He continued: “I know that companies in Turkey that disclose their environmental data have made remarkable progress this year in terms of Supplier Engagement Rating, which indeed shows that we are on track in terms of the progress we need to make to solve the climate crisis. Companies should not only evaluate their own environmental impact, they should also ensure that their suppliers act about it. We need to make more room for energy transition, electric vehicle technology, sustainable cities, green hydrogen and ammonia, smart agriculture, public and private partnerships, and the circular economy. After a voluntary commitment, we should adapt to the power of money and move from voluntary commitments to regulatory commitments by learning, improving, and disclosing environmental data. This is a very important moment for the private sector to assume climate responsibility and climate solidarity, and for the state to accelerate the cycle of ambition”.

THE MOST FREQUENTLY REPORTED TYPE OF RISK IS ABOUT REGULATIONS

Announcing CDP Climate Change & Water Program 2021 Turkey Report results, İdil Zeynep Dağdemir, CDP Projects Manager of Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, noted that the number of companies in Turkey responding to CDP Climate Change Program and Water Program continued to increase in 2021. She continued:

“Board-level oversight of climate-related issues in companies is growing year by year. The companies that include climate-related issues on the agenda at every board meeting increased from 18 companies, representing 33% of the total number of companies last year, to 34, or 53% this year. The rate of climate change-related risks with a direct effect on companies' activities is increasing every year. In 2021, 97% of disclosing companies in Turkey identified risks related to climate change. Almost all companies are now aware of the risks posed by climate change and are developing various precautionary mechanisms. At the point where the business world has reached, the full involvement of corporate governance about the climate crisis has created a new business normal. The most frequently reported type of risk is about regulations (77%). Regulations were the most reported type of risk last year too, with 65% of companies reporting these. This remarkable increase from 65% to 77% can be attributed to the fact that the government’s climate policy was uncertain until the ratification of the Paris Agreement in the Turkish Grand National Assembly in October 2021. For companies, identifying opportunities in the transition to a low-carbon economy is just as important as the identification of risks. The overwhelming majority of companies now set emission reduction targets. The rate of companies that set at least one emission reduction target in 2021 is 91%. The rate of companies that provide detailed information on their emission intensity targets and disclose their progress in these targets increased from 11% to 23%”.

Regarding companies’ risk assessments about water, İdil Zeynep Dağdemir said the following: “Although 98% of companies reporting in Turkey report that they have made a water-related risk assessment, only 27% of companies reported that water has detrimental effects on their operations. The fact that this figure is so low indicates that companies are not addressing all aspects of water safety in their risk assessments”.

TURKEY IS AMONG THE LEADING COUNTRIES IN TERMS OF REPORTING QUALITY

Evaluating the CDP Climate Change and Water Report 2021, Prof. Dr. Melsa Ararat, CDP Turkey Director, said, “Among the 117 countries covered by the CDP, Turkey is among the 20 most transparent countries where companies make the most comprehensive disclosure on climate change and water security. The rate of companies that make disclosures about 80% of 24 indicators in their statements is 33%, which puts Turkey in third place after Japan and Taiwan among 20 countries. This picture, which is a result of the joint efforts of the business world and CDP Turkey, shows that the business world is ready and willing for more brave public policies in the implementation of the Paris Agreement”.

Delivering the opening address of the conference, Ebru Dildar Edin, Executive Vice President of Garanti BBVA, said the following: “We are aware of the critical role of the finance sector in the green transformation journey, and as Garanti BBVA, we will continue to support this transformation with determination, regardless of the customer segment, in our capacity as a financing institution and our role as a consultant”. She continued: “We will further increase our efforts for the development of the local sustainable finance market in the coming days not only for our customers, but also for all our stakeholders. Last year, as an institution, we not only made disclosures for indices, but also strengthened our commitment to these processes with the Garanti BBVA Climate Index, which was implemented for the first time in Turkey by a bank with a sustainability focus. With this index, which we implement in cooperation with Borsa İstanbul and CDP Turkey, of which Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum is the partner in Turkey, we aim to encourage companies to develop the sustainable finance market and increase their transparency regarding climate risks and opportunities. We believe that, thanks to this index, Turkey's companies that are resilient to climate change, aiming to reduce and finally eliminate emissions in accordance with the targets predicted by science, will get on international institutional investors’ radar and will be instrumental in attracting additional foreign investment to Turkey. As one of the first institutions to respond to the call to the business world for transparency by CDP Turkey, which started its activities under the umbrella of Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, I would like to thank all companies that responded to the CDP and demonstrated their transparency and determination in the fight against climate change. I congratulate our leading companies and hope that this positive effect will expand in the coming years”.

During his closing speech at the conference, Dr. Ata Can Bertay, Director of Sabancı University Corporate Governance Forum, highlighted that Turkey was one of the prominent countries within the CDP in terms of reporting, adding that the clear climate change policies introduced by the Paris Agreement would increase the number of companies reporting to the CDP in Turkey. Dr. Bertay urged all companies in Turkey to make disclosures in the coming years and stated that they were ready to guide them together with Sabancı University CGF and CDP.

AWARD-WINNING COMPANIES WERE ANNOUNCED

The panel entitled “The End of Uncertainty in Public Policies and the New Business Normal” organized in the framework of the conference was moderated by Prof. Dr. Volkan Ş. Ediger, Director of the Center for Energy and Sustainable Development at Kadir Has University. Panel participants included Sonya Bhonsle, Global Head of Value Chains & Regional Director at CDP, Harry Boyd-Carpenter, EBRD’s Managing Director for Climate Strategies, Seray İmer, Sustainable Finance Manager at Garanti BBVA, and Cevdet Alemdar, TÜSİAD’s Chair of Energy, Environment, and Climate Change Roundtable, and Board Member.

11 companies in Turkey receiving an ‘A-’ score in the Climate Change and Water categories managed to be named on the CDP Turkey Leaders list. In 2020, 16 companies managed to do so. Within the framework of its ‘Supplier Engagement Rating’ (SER), CDP provides a rating for how effectively companies are engaging their suppliers on climate change. In Turkey, 8 companies were assigned an ‘A’ score and ranked among global leaders in the SER category.

On the occasion of the event, the award-winning companies were announced. In the water category, Eti Soda, Kordsa Teknik Tekstil and Tekfen Holding made the CDP Global A-list. In addition, Arçelik, Brisa Bridgestone, Kordsa Teknik Tekstil, Tekfen Holding and Eti Soda were included in the CDP Climate Change Program Turkey Leaders. In the CDP Water Program, Aksa Akrilik Kimya, Arçelik, Aselsan, Brisa Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, and Yapı Kredi Bank became Turkey Leaders.

Arçelik, Brisa Bridgestone, Coca-Cola, Ekol Lojistik, Ekoten Tekstil, Eti Soda, Korsa Teknik Tekstil and Osmangazi Elektrik Dağıtım were assigned an ‘A’ score and became Supplier Engagement Rating Global Leaders.

You can reach the CDP Climate Change & Water Program 2021 Turkey Results report from this link .

Organized by Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center (SUNUM), Nano Open Seminar Series continues with Dr. Aysun Altan's seminar entitled "Limitations and Opportunities in Epoxy, Polyurethane and Polyurea Systems", which will be held at 11:00 on Wednesday, April 20, 2022.

Limitations and opportunities in epoxy, polyurethane and polyurea systems. It is known that the lockdown in raw material production and price increases during the Covid 19 period created an industrial crisis. In this environment, the development and the use of bio-based raw materials has started to get attention of manufacturers. Manufacturers of epoxy, polyurethane and polyurea systems, which have very wide area of applications, are among the groups most affected by this crisis. Dr. Aysun Altan will give information about the basic features of these systems, common areas of use and the opportunities to use bio-based raw materials in these systems.

For registration: http://otolab.sabanciuniv.edu/SUNUMActivityRegistrationForm

About Dr. Aysun Altan

Aysun Altan graduated from Boğaziçi University, Teaching Chemistry Department with a degree of Integrated BSc and MSc. After earning her PhD from University of Florida, Chemistry Department, she worked at Ohio University as a post-doctoral researcher. Following her academic studies, she worked as R & D Manager at AB - Schomburg Yapı Kimyasalları, Huntsman-Ema Kimya Sistemleri and Caran Kimya. Altan has joined SUNUM in April 2022 and she conducts research on reactive polymers.