Sabancı University Istanbul International Center for Energy and Climate (IICEC) is organizing a conference entitled “Electric Vehicles Outlook - Global & Turkey”.

Dr. Fatih Birol, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) will deliver the opening speech of the conference, which will start at 10:30 on Tuesday, December 28. Guest speakers of the conference are Gürcan Karakaş, CEO of TOGG, and Haydar Yenigün, Chairman of the Automotive Manufacturers Association (OSD). In the conference, Bora Şekip Güray, Director of IICEC, will make the launch presentation of the IICEC “Turkey Electric Vehicles Outlook 2021” report.

The conference will be followed by a distinguished panel. Moderated by Mehmet Erdem Yaşar, Associate Director, Energy Eurasia MEA, SIG of EBRD Turkey, the panel will host Sinan Ak, CEO of Zorlu Enerji, Ahmet Erdem, Country Chairman of Shell Turkey, Özge Özden, General Secretary, Association of Electricity Distribution System Operators (ELDER), Özgür Özel, General Manager of SIRO, and Murat Pınar, Chairman of EUROGIA and of Eşarj, as speakers.

Due to the pandemic conditions, only the speakers and the panelists will onstage attend the conference physically, and the conference will be broadcast live between 10:30 and 12:30.

To watch the live broadcast, please click to register.

With a fellowship from Loughborough University, Sabancı University Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design Program Faculty Member Selçuk Artut will be staying two-weeks in the United Kingdom for accomplishing several tasks. With the Ambiguous Standards Institute of which he is a member, he will carry the exhibition that they presented at the Chicago Art Institute this year to Loughborough, and then prepare various seminars and make presentations with the same team.

Selçuk Artut has been a part of the ASI since 2018. ASI has collaborated with him in the 4th Istanbul Design Biennial (2018), Jerusalem Design Week (2019) and An Institute Within An Institute exhibition held in The Arts Institute of Chicago (2021). His work in the Institute was focused on but not limited to appropriate technology, interface design, user experience and interaction, and coding for design.

Sabancı University Gender and Women's Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender) will hold Dicle Koğacıoğlu Article Awards Conference, which will be organized for the 12^th time this year to the memory of Dicle Koğacıoğlu, a sociologist, from 13.00 to 17.00 on Saturday, December 25. The conference will be online.

The conference is organized to support gender-focused research and encourage young researchers. Applicants to the article awards will present their studies and the 2021 award winners will be announced during the award ceremony at the end of the conference.

Please click to register for the conference, which will be held on Zoom.  

Date: Saturday, December 25, 2021

Time: 13.00 – 17.00

Registration link: www.bit.ly/DK_21_Konferans

Dicle Koğacıoğlu Article Awards Conference and Award Ceremony Program

13.00-14.15 OPENING TALKS

14.15-14.30 BREAK

14.30-15.30 PANEL I

Facilitator: Biray Anıl Birer
Dilan Alataş, “Autism Mothers: Care Labor and Critical Imagination of Parenting”
Şehide Zehra Keleş Yüksel, “Hosting the Public: Home Visits for Social Study Purposes and Public Imaginations of Housewives”

15.30 - 15.45 BREAK

15.45-16.45 PANEL II

Facilitator: Şeyma Gümüş
Gözde Cöbek, “When Harry meets Sally (on an online application): Heterosexual Online Flirting World in Turkey”
Göksu Köktürk, “A Look through Women Consumers on the Relation of Femvertising with Gender Equality in the Context of Post Feminism and Meta Feminism”

16.45-17.00 AWARD CEREMONY

Foundation universities have been included in the Research Universities category of the Council of Higher Education’s (YÖK) Research-Oriented Mission Differentiation Program. Sabancı University became one of the three foundation universities included in the program.

Foundation universities have been included in the Research Universities category of the Council of Higher Education’s (YÖK) Research-Oriented Mission Differentiation Program. Sabancı University became one of the three foundation universities included in the program.

The Research Universities meeting was held in Ankara, in which new decisions in the framework of the “Research-Oriented Mission Differentiation Program” of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) were announced.  Attended by Mustafa Varank, the Minister of Industry and Technology, Erol Özvar, President of YÖK, Hasan Mandal, President of TÜBİTAK, and Yusuf Leblebici, President of Sabancı University, the meeting also hosted presidents of related institutions, members of YÖK, and presidents and vice-presidents of research universities.

Erol Özvar pointed out that YÖK made changes to the Research-Oriented Mission Differentiation Program and said the following: “Not assessed previously in the research universities category, foundation universities will, from now on, be monitored closely for their performance like state universities. According to the results of our assessment on applicants, 3 foundation universities have been granted the research university title”. Following this, Özvar announced that Sabancı University was also included in the research universities category. Yusuf Leblebiciwas presented the program certificate by Mustafa Varank and Erol Özvar.

Yusuf Leblebici: Since our establishment, we have determined research as our focus

Highlighting that Sabancı University has adopted research as one of its main focuses since its establishment, Yusuf Leblebici said the following: "It is an honor for us that our university has been granted the Research University status by YÖK. Our goal for the years to come is to become one of the leading research universities in the world. To reach our goal, we make comprehensive investments to further enrich our research infrastructure, and continue to work in close collaboration with the business world and industry. We make a difference with our high-quality and unique education programs and our ever-growing effectiveness and visibility in the world of science. To accelerate our research activities, we keep enriching our academic staff, educated at the best universities in the world. In the last two years, we recruited 41 full time faculty members, of whom 38 obtained their PhD degrees from universities abroad. 22 of them are highly valuable academics who joined us directly from abroad, and 7 others are our own alumni who completed their undergraduate studies at Sabancı University before going abroad for a doctoral degree. With our young and dynamic academic staff, we will continue to solve the real problems of industry and the business world, and carry out our research activities to contribute to society with a growing motivation".

Ogün Adebali, Lütfi Taner Tunç, and Murat Kaya Yapıcı, members of Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS) and Yiğit Atılgan, member of Sabancı Business School were found deserving of the TÜBA-GEBİP (Outstanding Young Scientists) Awards 2021. The TÜBA-GEBİP Awards are presented by TÜBA (Turkish Academy of Sciences) every year to reward outstanding achievements of young scientists.

Murat Kaya Yapıcı, Ogün Adebali, Yiğit Atılgan, Lütfi Taner Tunç

The TÜBA-GEBİP Awards have been presented since 2001 to reward and encourage young scientists working in the field of natural sciences, engineering, health sciences and social sciences to continue their scientific studies in Turkey, establish their own working groups, and produce projects and publications of international quality in Turkey. Within the scope of the program, besides the financial support of 30 thousand Liras provided each year to the award winners for 3 years, an additional support of 10 thousand Liras each year is provided to doctoral students at the dissertation stage, and consultancy is provided by the academy members.

Our alumna, Irmak Şişmanoğlu was ranked among the “Best Rising Stars” in the “IDC Women Transforming Technology Awards 2021” organized by International Data Corporation (IDC) Turkey.

Graduating from Industrial Engineering program in 2008, Irmak Şişmanoğlu was found deserving of the award for her Process Digitalization role in the field of Strategy & Digital Transformation group at Arçelik company.

Commenting on the award, Irmak Şişmanoğlu said the following: “I thank IDC Turkey very much for granting me this special award among the very talented, technology-developing women in Turkey as a result of my hard work of two years, which were equally enlightening. I am proud of achievements of determined Turkish women who act bravely and do what they believe despite all those who say to girls “You cannot do this”, “Don’t jump, or you will fall”, “You cannot become a/an …”, “No way, are you crazy?”, “It is not as easy as you think”.  

Burcu Saner Okan, member of Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, and SU-IMC researcher, was found deserving of the Mehmet Şuhubi Award within the framework of the TTGV Awards given by the Technology Development Foundation of Turkey (TTGV) since 2002.

The award program evaluates successful examples in the field of science, technology, commercialization, R&D and innovation management. Burcu Saner Okan was found deserving of the award for her studies for the development of graphene-reinforced, lighter automotive parts in Nanografen company, of which she is a co-founder and the General Manager.

The Mehmet Şuhubi Award is given to people at or under the age of 40 who have gained visibility and made achievements in technology and innovation sector and/or contributed technology ecosystem through entrepreneurship within the last 5 years.  

You can have detailed information about the winners of the TTGV 2021 Awards from this link.

Who is Burcu Saner Okan?

Co-founder and General Manager of Nanografen, and faculty member of Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Research and Application Center, Burcu Saner Okan completed her BS in Chemistry at the Middle East Technical University in 2005. She had her MS and PhD in Materials Science and Engineering at Sabancı University in 2007 and 2011, respectively. From 2011 to 2016, she worked as a research fellow at Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center. Since 2017, she has worked as an application and research-oriented faculty member at Sabancı University Composite Technologies Center of Excellence. In addition, she co-founded Nanografen company with the grant support she received in the framework of TÜBİTAK 1512 Entrepreneurship Support Program. In partnership with Yazgan Piroliz facilities, she developed a technology to transform carbon from recycled rubber to graphene nanolayers and established a production line with an annual output capacity of 6 tons. At Nanografen company, Dr. Saner Okan developed graphene-reinforced prototype parts in partnership with Farplas, Ravago and Renault, and Renault France approved the material developed for printing of parts to enter its materials list. Nanografen is included as a supplier in Renault’s international materials database with Ravago. Dr. Saner Okan participated in many domestic and international projects so far, ad she has 2 patents, 7 book sections and 37 publications. Her specialization includes graphene synthesis, surface chemistry, polymer processing, nanocomposite manufacturing, upcycling and recycling techniques, cyclical economy.

About Nanografen Company

NANOGRAFEN was established on 26.11.2013 by researchers from Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research and Application Center in partnership with Inovent A.Ş. Nanografen developed a graphene manufacturing method based on upcycling and recycling of carbon from waste rubber for lower manufacturing costs, and it is the first company in the global graphene market to achieve big-scale manufacturing from waste. In addition, through the partnership established with Gan Piroliz facilities in 2015, it established a production line in which carbon obtained from recycled rubber is transformed to graphene. This facility provides a solution to the problem of waste, which becomes more important each day in our country, and paves the way for the manufacturing of high-value added products.

A project implemented by Ogün Adebali, member of Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, is entitled to support within the framework of TÜBİTAK 3501 Career Development Project.

The project entitled “A New Phylogeny-based Co-evolution Algorithm and Applications” will be implemented by a group led by Ogün Adebali. A post-doctoral researcher with mathematics background will also work within the framework of the project.

Talking about the goals of the project, Ogün Adebali said the following: “The fact that functional amino acids of proteins mutate during the evolutionary processes and are in constant change to maintain their functionality requires that the other amino-acids that are in interaction with the former change in a way to offset such a change. Only those interacting amino acids pairs or multiples with the right combination can adapt to the environment in evolutionary processes and be selected while incompatible pairs are eliminated during evolution. Amino acid sequences that manage to survive are those that managed to adapt to environmental conditions. By making use of this basic biological knowledge, we will develop a new algorithm to determine co-evolving amino acids of proteins”.

Mentioning the importance of the project, Adebali said the following: “Increasing the accuracy of computational prediction of co-evolving amino acids will provide benefits in basic sciences and clinical research. In basic sciences, understanding the protein folding and determining the interface in which protein-protein interactions occur will play a role in understanding molecular events. Evaluation of co-evolving amino-acids in computational diagnosis of genetic diseases is considered an important factor that can increase success of pathogenicity predictability of mutations”.

Sabancı University MBA program is a full-time program welcoming student without prior work experience and hands on training program offering Company Action Projects in top multinational and local companies in Turkey during their education.

The program provides work experience within its curriculum and it offers an international experience to its students with exchange programs that without paying any education fee abroad, only by covering the living expenses.

Details about the program will shared on December 14^th 2021, Tuesday at 19:00 pm (GMT+3) in the online information session.

• Date:  December 14^th 2021, Tuesday
• Time: 19:00 pm (GMT+3)
• Location:  Zoom- Please click here for registration.

For more information, you can send an e-mail to mba@sabanciuniv.edu

The winners of the Şirin Tekeli Research Awards, organized by Sabancı University Gender and Women's Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender) in memory of Şirin Tekeli, who conducted pioneering work on democracy, academic freedom, gender equality, and feminism, were announced at an online award ceremony and conference.

The Research Awards organized by Sabancı University Gender and Women's Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender) in memory of Şirin Tekeli, who conducted pioneering work on democracy, academic freedom, gender equality, and feminism, were given for the 5^th time at an online conference this year. This year’s winners of the Şirin Tekeli Research Awards for supporting and encouraging gender-focused research in Turkey were Canan Balan, Delta Meriç Candemir, Eda Acara & Ayça Kurtoğlu, Merve Altun Ekinci & Canan Koca and Rüya Kalıntaş.

SU Gender has organized the Şirin Tekeli Research Award Ceremony and Conference since 2017 in order to contribute to the preservation, sharing, and diversification of the rich heritage left by Şirin Tekeli. Applications of doctoral students and researchers who completed their doctoral studies no more than 15 years ago were accepted for the awards. Research proposals were evaluated by an intercollegiate selection committee on the basis of academic criteria.

Speaking at the opening of the conference, Hülya Adak, the Coordinator of Sabancı University Gender and Women's Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender), said the following: “We started to hold the Şirin Tekeli Research Awards and conference in 2017, the year Şirin Tekeli passed away. Over the last 5 years, we have provided support to 36 researchers. We are glad to bring together researchers working in the field of gender research on the occasion of our award and conference ceremony that we are holding for the fifth time this year. We are currently preparing a book about the award-winning studies so far. We want to share this book with you during next year’s award ceremony and conference”.

The opening speeches of the event were delivered by Ayşe Gül Altınay, member of Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and former director of SU Gender, and Meral Akkent, a feminist sociologist, and the concept developer and founding curator (2010-2021) of the Istanbul Women’s Museum, the first women’s museum in Turkey and the third in the world.

During the opening session, which was entitled “Şirin Tekeli: Growing by Making Others Grow”, the work of Şirin Tekeli in the field of democracy, academic freedom, gender equality and feminism was discussed. Ayşe Gül Altınay said she was proud to commemorate Şirin Tekeli, who had a very important place and role in the feminist movement and academic literature, and to come together, albeit online, with young researchers in order to get inspiration from their work on the occasion of the awards given in her name. She continued: “Like Şirin Tekeli, Meral Akkent made creative contributions to gender research and the feminist movement in Turkey, and produced many works opening new horizons for us. Opened in 2012 under the leadership of Meral Akkent and with the participation of many volunteers, the Istanbul Women’s Museum opened a brand-new feminist window on the long history of Istanbul. Without this museum, which enhanced and transformed our knowledge by adding new and exciting discoveries about the history of

this city, our Curious Steps walks that we carry out as SU Gender would never be complete. Meral Akkent is taking a new and exciting step now by establishing the Istanbul Gender Museum”. Mentioning the many conferences and exhibitions that they organized as SU Gender with Meral Akkent and the Istanbul Women’s Museum, Altınay added the following: “We invited Şirin Tekeli to deliver an opening address at the Gender Inequality in Academia: International Best Practices symposium that we co-organized in 2014. She could not join us due to her illness, and I was really touched as I read out her impressive speech to the audience at the event. Today, it is a great honor for me to listen to Meral Akkent talk about Şirin Tekeli. Meral Akkent had a long time together with Şirin Tekeli and opened up inclusive, encouraging and nourishing feminist spaces that unleash creative discourse, curiosity and excitement, just like Şirik Tekeli did. On behalf of us all, I would like to thank Meral Akkent, who is also on the International Advisory Board of SU Gender, for her contribution to SU Gender, starting with Curious Steps, and to the feminist movement and gender studies in Turkey.”

THE ISTANBUL GENDER MUSEUM IS BEING ESTABLISHED  

Pointing out that thinking of Şirin Tekeli always made her feel good, Meral Akkent said she met Şirin Tekeli at a conference in Germany in 1989. She continued as follows: “We lost Şirin Tekeli at the age of 73 in 2017; we are never complete without her. Şirin’s passion and ability to support young academics make her a real idol. She grew by making others around her grow. Continuing the tradition of the Şirin Tekeli Research Awards, SU Gender developed a program supporting young academics, in perfect harmony with Şirin Tekeli’s life practice. Creating and continuing this program, which is a small oasis for academic productivity in the period of depression that academia in Turkey has been going through since the 1980s, is an important action per se. I would like to extent my special thanks to SU Gender team, who organized the Şirin Tekeli Research Awards and Conference”.

Highlighting that Şirin Tekeli was among the founders of many important institutions, including the Human Rights Society, the Foundation for Library and Information Center for Works by Women of Istanbul, the Mor Çatı Women's Shelter Foundation, the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly of Turkey, and the Woman Candidates Support and Education Society (KA-DER), Akkent continued as follows: “Şirin Tekeli encouraged and gave wing to women near and far, particularly young women in academia because she personally experienced in her youth how difficult things were for women academics and she observed that the challenges remained. Şirin pointed to the need to rebuild a democratic society based on gender equality each and every day. And it is possible to find the strength to do it through solidarity, in other words, with Şirin Tekeli’s model. Good examples of such efforts include SU Gender in academia, and museums, which are supposed to be dynamic forums where justice is demanded, in cultural activism. Currently at the establishment phase, the Istanbul Gender Museum will provide alternatives to traditional ways of thinking as a dynamic forum nourished by feminist theory and practice. This museum will open up new spaces for dialogue based on Şirin Tekeli’s model.”

LAST YEAR’S AWARD WINNERS SHARED THEIR RESEARCH RESULTS

As part of the conference, two separate panels were held in which researchers who won the Şirin Tekeli Award last year shared their work. During the first panel, Ayşe Akalın and Demet Lüküslü, the winners of the last year’s Research Award, shared the results of their research entitled "There is a huge rage and I can feel it in my veins: Young Feminists from Turkey”, and Yonca Cingöz shared the results of her research entitled “Sentiments circulating in the feminist movement: Clues of an archive of sentiments from the 2000s”.

During the second panel, Füsun Kökalan Çımrın and Gülçin Con Wright, the winners of last year’s Research Incentive Award, revealed the outputs of their research entitled “It turns out that we are really activists!”, and “Grandparenting and grandchild care experiences at late stages of life”, respectively. The conference was completed with the online award ceremony.

WINNERS OF THE ŞİRİN TEKELİ RESEARCH AWARDS 2021

• Canan Balan "Boundaries of transnationalism after empire: Auto-/biographies and the work of women in the cinema of late Ottoman Empire and early Turkish Republic"
• Delta Meriç Candemir"Appearances of domestic work in social media: Youtuber women presenting domestic work as user-derived content "
  • Eda Acara & Ayça Kurtoğlu "Feminist political ecology of digital food markets: How does the digital transformation of food markets under conditions of uncertainty impact local food systems and women’s labor?"
  • Merve Altun Ekinci & Canan Koca "Analysis of the making of Olympic women athletes’ identities and personal brands on social media in the context of post-feminism"
  • Rüya Kalıntaş "Beyond the Semah: The politics of gender and sexuality in Alevi theatre"