Sabancı MBA program develops transformative business skills and knowledge in its participants. Details about the program will shared on June 26^th 2021, Saturday at 14:30 pm (GMT+3) in the online information session.

Date:  June 26^th 2021, Saturday

Time: 14:30 pm (GMT+3)

Location:  Please click here for registration.

If you are interested in applying to Sabancı MBA, it is not too late. Our late application deadline is July 9th, 2021 (no scholarship is awarded in late application)

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

Offering professionals opportunities for development in different areas through the training programs it designs, Sabancı University Executive Development Unit (EDU) has announced its program for May. According to the announcement, those who register for the “Finance for Executives” and “Lean 6 Sigma Green Belt” training programs by April 30, 2021 will be able to benefit from a 15% early registration discount.

The Finance for Executives Certificate Program, which targets executives who want to develop themselves in the field of finance and entrepreneurs who want to manage the financial performance of their companies, is composed of 6 modules. The training program will cover all the main areas of finance, from analysis of financial statements to risk management, and will start on May 22. 

The Lean 6 Sigma Green Belt Certificate Program will enable learners to develop their skills in solving efficiency, quality and variability-related issues by using Green Belt problem solving tools. The Lean 6 Sigma Green Belt Certificate Program includes 10 full days of training and 6 hours of individual coaching training and the Program will start on May 20.

Targeting professionals wishing to develop their leadership skills, the Leadership: Building an Environment of Trust and Collaboration training program will enable learners to apply what they learn through group coaching and learning from one another in their professional life. The training program will start on May 5.

EDU’s other training programs for May include Success at Sales (May 4-5), Creative Approaches to Problem Solving (May 21-22), Pricing Strategies (May 8), Finance for Non-Financial Executives (May 24-25-26), Gender Equality in the World of Work (May 17), Creating a Brand and Understanding Consumers in the Digital Age (May 27-28), Campretail: Contemporary Techniques in Retail Campaign Management (May 28).

For detailed information about and registration for training programs, please visit https://edu.sabanciuniv.edu/tr/acik-egitimler. 

Ömür Kula Çapan, 2003 alumna of the Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Undergraduate Program in Economics and 2006 alumna of the Graduate Program in Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design, has been selected for the “World Fellows” program organized for 20 years by Yale University, one of the most prestigious educational institutions in the world.

You can read below our interview with Ömür Kula Çapan, who ranks among the 16 leaders invited to the World Fellows program this year. 

Hello, first of all, we would like to congratulate you. Can you tell us a bit about the “World Fellows” program?

Ö.K.Ç: The Yale University, Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows program is an international fellowship program for rising global leaders. The most important eligibility criterion is to prove that you have accumulated considerable expertise in your profession, ang gained sufficient experience, in other words, you have reached sufficient level of maturity in your professional career. That’s because this program promises to offer opportunities for individuals who have reached the top level in their career to move to the next level where they can be more effective, or make a global move or maybe switch to a different career. The most natural question that we should ask ourselves in every stage of life is “what’s next”, I mean, “what should I target now”. However, this is not an easy question to ask after you have certain achievements. Asking this question requires a great deal of courage and the answer to this question is a very difficult one, because if you are good at what you do, it means that your journey to the top is a shortened one. You may be at a stage where you will need to build the career ladder yourself if you are at the top and need to go beyond. At that point in time, there is the need to get enlightened, take a deep breath, stop and think. This program offers you exactly the breath that you need. While doing so, it commits to providing you with the new fields and new ideas that may be your new areas of interest and let you go for new discoveries. This is an intellectual break before you start your second life. It is definitely the case for me. As a professional, I have reached a good position in my sector and set up my own business. I have a great partner, the work we produce is considered of superior quality, and I am where I want to be in terms of professional satisfaction. I have so far considered it my duty to volunteer for non-profit associations and foundations in order to serve this sector. However, there is a risk of repetition at this point. I always think to myself how I can grow my vision from here, grow my business, and transform creative industries. To get there, this program will give me the time, space, means and - most importantly - extraordinary teammates to think with.

What’s the aim of the World Fellows program?

Ö.K.Ç: The aim of this program is to bring together 16 selected leaders as World Fellows from around the world to reside at Yale for 5 months to enable the fellows to establish a strong network, and to make the complete curriculum of the university available to these 16 fellows in line with their dreams and visions for the future. We will determine our own curriculum and study whatever we want. And, more importantly, we will learn from one another. We will be part of a huge network of the World Fellows graduating from this program. The aim of this program to offer the necessary emotional courage, mental capabilities and humanitarian framework to the individuals whom the program builders suspect of having the innermost courage or competence to change the world. I use the word “suspect”, because you never know who can change the world, but there are always the usual suspects among us :) 

How about criteria of selection as a World Fellow? Do you make an application yourself or are you nominated?

Ö.K.Ç: Actually, I can say both; in the case that you are nominated, you have to make an application, because you have to prove that you want it, you cannot be forced to be a World Fellow. The application process is all about getting to know you, who you are. Your character matters more than your achievements, or at least, that’s what I felt. At the end of the day, all the candidates are professionals above a certain level, and eliminating some applicants requires looking at some other criteria than professional achievements. I believe creativity, character, life perspective, and passions play a big role in the selection process. The world is full of leaders who pretend. Fake perspectives locked in outdated principles of diplomacy, people abstaining from telling the truth, afraid of everyone, and wanting to keep good relations with every related party are no longer contemporary. Vis-à-vis the world’s problems, and more importantly those who create these problems, there is the need for new generation perspectives to replace those that fail to criticize because of falling into the pits of politeness. I believe this forms the backbone of the selection criteria, that’s what I understand from the questions I was asked. What is needed is courage and freshness.

What will be your mission as a World Fellow?

Ö.K.Ç: I think the most important mission is to stick to the mission discussed in the application process. The rest is directly related to what we can add to it. We are expected to continue to work in an intercultural and international way, with regards to both our current jobs or businesses, and what we will do going forward. There are bureaucrats, politicians, engineers, and activists among us. Another mission that we have is to maintain our network and show strong solidarity, carry what we do to the next level, and do better for the world, for the sectors and the countries we come from. 

Last but not least, what’s the importance of being a part of this program for you? What are you planning to do as a 2021 World Fellow?

Ö.K.Ç: For me, that was kind of some big news. I am not an academic, politician or bureaucrat. I am doing a job that serves the system. I worked as an advertising expert, then a banker, and as a consultant for years. I am currently providing management consultancy with a focus on brand and design, which is a rising niche in the world; but still, it is not a field of activity that such programs are used to. That’s why I was extremely surprised and incredibly happy when I received the invitation. I believe this is a huge opportunity. The dilemmas of Turkey must have played an important role in my invitation to this program. The program owners must have considered the profile that I have in this geography and thought that I could make an impact both in the sphere of my profession and beyond. I also think secretly that I can make such an impact. And now, I feel obliged to do so with a different responsibility. I feel they have given me a homework assignment to do what I dream of. I hope to be able to do it, and see I can do more than what I can do today.

Thank you very much for this pleasant interview.  

UP School, of which Mina İlköz - a 2017 graduate of the Economics program of our University, is the co-founder, - is working to encourage women role models in technology.

Despite being established during the pandemic, UP School already has considerable achievements. Young women graduates of UP School have already started to work for companies like Ford Otosan, Coca Cola Turkey, Hepsiburada and İş Bank. Born as a social initiative, UP School has some ongoing programs, including the Android Development Program in partnership with Akbank and the Data Analysis Program with Ford Otosan.

We talked to our alumna, Mina İlköz about the story of the establishment of UP School and her targets going forward.

First of all, can you introduce yourself? Can you talk briefly about your career path and the process that led you to establish UP School?

Hello, I am Mina İlköz. I completed my primary and secondary education in Gönen, entered Sabancı University in 2012, and graduated from the Economics Program in 2017. During my first year at the University, an orange banner on the campus attracted my attention. I approached the banner and saw that it was YGA‘s (Young Guru Academy) banner. Every year, the YGA Summit was being organized and 100 volunteers were selected from among 50,000 applicants. YGA is an NGO, an ecosystem that raises both conscientious and well-educated youngsters. After I saw the banner, I applied to YGA. Following a 4-stage process, I became a YGA Volunteer. During my university studies, I spent 5,000 hours on YGA’s social innovation projects and I assumed active responsibility. 

During the 3^rd year of my undergraduate studies, I was involved in the Erasmus exchange program through the means provided by Sabancı university, and I studied at Tilburg University in the Netherlands for a semester. The Labor Economics course that I received at Tilburg impressed me so much that I was doing preliminary studies before going to the course  :)  Covering critical issues such as the gender pay gap or prioritization of men for recruitment, this course gave me a big inspiration to make a project for women. We even made a Free Project application in this field with my roommate at Sabancı.

During my last year at the university and after graduation, I worked for Turkcell’s crowdfunding platform called Arıkovanı. It was great experience for me to work with entrepreneurs to fund their projects at the launching stage. Working with entrepreneurs under a corporate structure, I learned many things about the ecosystem. 

After 1.5 years, I returned to YGA to do both meaningful and global projects and started to work there professionally. After 2 years with YGA, we established the UP School initiative.

When and how was UP School established? Can you share your entrepreneurship story with us?

UP School is a YGA initiative. There are many initiatives established by YGA graduates like me. WeWALK and Twin are examples of such initiatives. We established UP School in March 2020. With my friends from YGA, we started to think about what could be done to elevate women. Nowadays, one of the best ways to do it is to use technological leverage.

With this in mind, we contacted the HR and technology teams from many companies and listened to their problems. Unfortunately, the competencies that students learn at universities are not always those required by companies. Companies are having great difficulty finding the right people for their vacancies. As the brain drain from Turkey in the field of software has intensified, this issue has become even more critical. Moreover, the rate of female employment in technology is only 10% in our country, whereas the world average is around 30%. 

Having seen the situation, we started to work on it immediately. 

At UP School, we encourage women role models in technology. We design software training programs for women and we lead them to their professional career in companies. As a matter of fact, we enable them to reach the career they dream of. So far, we have implemented RPA and Data Science training programs at UP School. Young women graduating from UP School have started to work for companies like Ford Otosan, Coca Cola Turkey, Hepsiburada, and İş Bank. 

Our ongoing programs are the Android Development Program that we implement with Akbank, and the Data Analysis Program with Ford Otosan.

In implementing our first programs in Turkey, our aim is to become a global ed-tech initiative.

With this in mind, we cooperated with Stanford University last summer and we worked on the global expansion of UP School with Rika Watanabe, a Stanford MBA student.

Through our cooperation with Google UK, we hosted 3 Google engineers as visiting instructors in our Data Science program.

UP School is just one year old. Ours is an initiative established in the middle of the pandemic; therefore, we have been working remotely from Day Oone, and we do not have any physical offices. We have not even met the graduates of our program physically yet :)                                                                                              

Ever since its establishment, Sabancı University has assumed a leading role among universities in terms of enabling students to acquire social responsibility through the Civic Involvement Projects that are made obligatory for students. The UP School initiative has a strong social responsibility aspect. From this perspective, how would you interpret being a Sabancı University student?

I find this initiative of Sabancı University very valuable. We are in a meaningful life in which we can add value, not just a bright career in a good company. It is priceless for all of us to have a vision which serves this purpose as soon as we arrive at the University. I am sure that the vision of the University changed many students’ perspectives.

What are your objectives and plans for UP School? 

Our objective is to increase number of our programs in Turkey and secure cooperation with a greater number of institutions. Additionally, global expansion is a very exciting idea for us. We’re working really hard on expanding to the UK.

Last but not the least, I have a call out to Sabancı University students. Our doors are wide open to Sabancı University students who want to have an internship at UP School:) Those who are interested can send an email to mina@upschool.io.

Sinan Yıldırım, member of Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS), has been awarded TÜBİTAK Career Development Program (3501) support.

Sinan Yıldırım’s project, which will be supported in the framework of TÜBİTAK 3501 career development program, is entitled "Data Privacy Applications through Monte Carlo Methods".

Sinan Yıldırım provided information about his project that will be supported by TÜBİTAK. The use of personal information for the common good and protection of individuals’ privacy have recently been two issues that both become more important and present conflicting interests. Statistical analyses of data privacy offer an integrated approach to these two problems. Therefore, studies in this field have been gaining momentum in recent years. The "Data Privacy Applications through Monte Carlo Methods" project is anticipated to contribute to the studies in this field. The project involves studies on innovative Bayesian statistics and Monte Carlo methods for data privacy applications.

Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence (SU Gender) held a panel on Saturday, February 20, 2021 to discuss the relation between the pandemic and gender with representatives of NGOs in different fields.

Hülya Adak, Director of SU Gender, delivered an opening speech at the panel entitled “Talking about Gender on the First Anniversary of the COVID-19 Pandemic”. During her speech, Adak explained the purpose of issuing the recently published report on “Monitoring Gender Studies during the Covid-19 Pandemic”, and emphasized that gender-based violence and inequalities grew during the pandemic.

Among the panel participants, SU Gender Asistants Aslı Aygüneş and Oğuz Can Ok talked about their work during the preparation of the Monitoring Report, and stated that the panel was organized to evaluate details of the research included in the report with relevant stakeholders.

Among other speakers of the panel were Coşkun Gök and Şule Sepin from the Turkish Federation of the Blind, Damla Eroğlu ve Hilal Gençay from the Women for Women’s Human Rights – New Ways Association, Emel Memiş from the Feminist Researchers Studying Women’s Labor/KEFA and Gender Equality Monitoring Association/CEİD, Rojda Zaman from the KAMER Foundation, Suzan Saner from the Women’s Commission in Istanbul Chamber of Doctors and Women and Psychiatry Working Unit of the Psychiatric Association of Turkey, Barış Azar from the LGBTI+ Association, Yıldız Tar from the KAOS-GL Association, and Zelal Yalçın, Social Policies Coordinator of Social Services Department of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. Speakers evaluated the relation between the pandemic and gender, and topics such as violence against women, disability, access to healthcare and education, discrimination against LGBTI+ individuals, women’s labor and employment from different perspectives. They also mentioned their reporting and advocacy efforts during the pandemic, and shared their suggestions as to what they expected NGOs to do going forward. 

Sabancı University is one of the two institutions in Turkey receiving the greatest amount of support.

Three projects from Sabancı University, namely the project of Aslı İkizoğlu Erensü, member of Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), the project of Deniz Gündoğan İbrişim from Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence (SU GENDER), and the project of Nur Mustafaoğlu Varol, member of Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS) were found deserving of support in the framework of the call program “EU H2020 Marie Skłodowska Curie Action Individual Fellowships (MSCA-IF) 2020”.

The latest MSCA IF call 2020 under H2020 received 11,573 applications, a record so far, and 14 of 117 applications from Turkey were found eligible for support. With three projects, Sabancı University became one of the two institutions in Turkey receiving the greatest amount of support. The total budget of the three projects to benefit from support is 472,065 Euros. 

The EU H2020 Marie Skłodowska Curie International Scholarship and Research Grants (MSCA-Individual Fellowships) program aims to strengthen human potential in the fields of research and technology from qualitative and quantitative perspectives, support the career development of researchers, encourage researchers’ mobility between countries and sectors, and thus make Europe and Turkey centers of attraction for researchers.  

Aslı İkizoğlu Erensü, member of FASS, said the following about “Learning the Language of Belonging: Obstacles to Inclusion for Education of Refugees”: “Public education opens up space for children in the future of a society. Therefore, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) encourages inclusion of refugee children in their first country of refuge in national education systems. However, daily school experience of refugee children shows that education is a field of continuous challenge rather than being a magical gateway to social inclusion. In its broadest sense, this project aims to contribute to the literature that studies the processes preventing social inclusion in public education.

“Education policies for refugee children in Turkey were transformed in compliance with the UNHCR strategy on the influx of refugees from Syria. According to the data of the Ministry of National Education for 2019-2020, some 63% of school age Syrian children were included in national education. One of the biggest deficiencies found in this process was insufficient local language support to students. In the face of this, a new practice called ‘integration classes’ was started in the education year 2019-2020. Accordingly, refugees who need to develop their Turkish language skills will be admitted to special classes where they will learn only Turkish language before they join their academic classes corresponding to their age. 

“In the framework of MSCA-IF, I will research how the integration classes impact the socialization of refugee children, and of their caretakers. In the first year of my research, I will make observations in one integration class selected from each of the primary, secondary and high-school levels, and interview teachers and students. Furthermore, I hope to cooperate with Sabancı University Civic Involvement Projects to realize a Conversation Club in these classes in order to enable a partnership between the university and refugee communities. In the second year of my research, I plan to carry out participatory action research with caretakers of refugee children. The aim of this action research is to understand the expectations of caretakers from education and their ways of coping with problems, in addition to mediating so that they may participate in public education as legitimate stakeholders.” 

According to the information provided by Deniz Gündoğan İbrişim from Sabancı University Gender and Women’s Studies Center of Excellence (SU GENDER), the project “From the Anthropocene to Post-Imperial Memory, Gender and Trauma: New Approaches in Turkey” studies the Anthropocene both as an age and an analytical category, and how it is represented in post-Ottoman Turkey and European diaspora. The project develops a feminist and queer-focused perspective on the Anthropocene and opens to discussion the cultural and literary setting and aesthetics of the Anthropocene. This project studies environmental and slow violence, trauma, age and ecological grief representations in the Anthropocene through feminist and queer approaches and methodologies, particularly in Turkish literature in the post-Ottoman context, and aims to expand, and more importantly ‘decolonize’ the European- and Western-centered discourse. 

In this context, the project examines biographies, works and performances of thinkers and authors like Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Yaşar Kemal, Orhan Pamuk and Emine Sevgi Özdamar, and is intended to develop a comparative and cross-sectional perspective on how the concepts of Anthropocene trauma, ecological grief and ecological mourning are remembered and represented in Turkey and European diaspora. The project will also touch upon how the studied thinkers and authors address the neoliberal patriarchal understanding of today and the global climate crisis. This project will offer a multidisciplinary approach to Anthropocene discussions in post-Ottoman culture and literature in the light of fields such as feminist and queer theories, literature and environmental sciences. 

Nur Mustafaoğlu Varol, member of the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS), said the following about her project entitled “a 3D in vitro microfluid human Neurovascular Unit model to identify cell type-specific responses to various inflammatory stimulants in brand endothelium”: “Neurological disorders impact many people’s lives. Having a remarkable share in causes of death and illness in the modern world, these disorders are the source of 16.5% of deaths globally, impact the daily life of 276 million people, and are considered the leading cause of disability. Most of these disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Multiple Sclerosis, result from failure of the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB), which is a part of the Neurovascular Unit (NVU) in the human brain. Unfortunately, neither animal models nor primary or immortalized brain endothelium cells can carry out barrier and transmitter functions effectively on their own. Therefore, there is a major need for human NUV models to summarize in vivo human physiology under sickness and health conditions and understand cell mechanisms and changes under sickness conditions. This project aims to develop a 3D NVU model to identify cell type-specific responses to various inflammatory stimulants in NVU.” 

According to the information provided by Nur Mustafaoğlu Varol, the NVU-Chip project will be the first model providing such a complicated cellular environment in a unique microfluidic device to fully restructure human NVU   in vitro by using related mechanobiological forces. In addition, the NVU-Chip will apply cyclical mechanical stress to a BBB model for the first time to ensure that cells are in an environment with mechanobiological forces that are the most similar to human physiology. This project will bring together and develop sophisticated microfabrication approaches to design and manufacture the newest stem cell technologies and microfluidic chips to differentiate all brain cells. A human-based NVU-Chip model will help identify the main inflammatory factors of central nervous system sicknesses to develop a new approach to examining cell response to various inflammatory stimulants. Outputs of the NVU-Chip project will develop existing knowledge and technologies and contribute to publications in high impact journals and potential commercial products in the longer run. 

Sabancı University Sailing Club (SU-SAIL) is hosting the E-Sailing European Cup, Europe’s first intercollegiate e-sailing championship, to revive the competitive spirit of sailors from universities during the pandemic and to bring university students together. 

Operating at Sabancı University for 20 years, SU-SAIL breaks new ground by hosting Europe’s first intercollegiate e-sailing championship on April 24 and 25, and May 1 and 2, 2021. Organized to revive the competitive spirit of sailors from universities during the pandemic with further lockdown measures and to bring university students together, the championship is expected to be attended by some 80 students from 20 universities in Europe. 

The tournament will be played on VR Inhore, a globally popular gaming platform, and the races will be broadcast live on eSailingTV and online outlets. The races will be held in groups, with 4 participants from each university, and scoring will be done through the SailRanks system. 

Among the sponsors and supporters of the tournament are Sabancı University, Redbull, All of Chrome, E-Sailing Club, Reflect Studio, Alize Yachting, and Sailranks. 

University students wishing to participate in the competition and learn more about the event will be able to apply through e-sailing.sr@sabanciuniv.edu by March 21, 2021.

Research has provided indications as to whether search engine results are biased. The study was carried out by using news search results of the Google and Bing search engines, and 57 controversial subjects were evaluated in terms of two types of bias, namely “perspective” and “ideology”. The article resulting from the research was published in Information Retrieval, one of the most prestigious journals in this field.

The research carried out by Yücel Saygın, member of Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, and Gizem Gezici, PhD Student at the Computer Science and Engineering Program, in collaboration with Aldo Lipani and Emine Yılmaz from University College London (UCL), on the impartiality of search engines was published in Information Retrieval as one of the leading studies in this field.

Gizem Gezici, Yücel Saygın 

ARE SEARCH ENGINES UNBIASED?

It is search engines that decide which results are listed in response to a query. Among the most frequently used tools to access information nowadays, search engines are expected to be unbiased on the basis of the sources of information they present. However, search engine results do not cover all the perspectives about a search query subject. Search engine results can be biased in favor of a certain perspective since search results are listed according to level of relevance. Therefore, it is important to evaluate search engine results from the perspective of impartiality.

The focus of the research of Professor Yücel Saygın, member of Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, and Gizem Gezici, PhD Student at the Computer Science and Engineering Program, concerned the evaluation of whether search engines brought the most relevant results in response to user queries. The 57 controversial issues used in the search queries were taken from ProCon.org, an online resource for research on controversial issues.

SEARCH ENGINES WERE OBSERVED TO COME UP WITH BIASED RESULTS

The study was conducted by using the news search fields of the Google and Bing search engines, and results were evaluated in terms of two types of bias, namely “perspective” and “ideology”. The researchers used these two types of bias to see whether the search engines brought biased results separately.  In addition, the two search engines were compared in terms of level of bias. The conclusion of the study was that the search engines did not include any bias about perspective, however both search engines came up with ideologically biased results. Furthermore, it was observed that the more successful search engine came up with more biased results. The findings of the research established that it was necessary to include metrics for bias in success criteria for search engines.

The 4^th Topics of Water Diving Conference, organized by Sabancı University Sub-qua Society, was held on March 12 – 13. The aim of the conference was to enable underwater enthusiasts to acquire different perspectives on the sea and underwater, and to benefit from the experience and know-how of expert speakers.

The conference had four sessions and hosted five distinguished speakers. The number of participants on the first day was 260, and on the second day 190. During the conference, presentations were made by Fatma Uruk, record-breaking free-diver, Derya Akkaynak, a mechanical engineer, oceanographer, and the designer of the “Sea-Thru” algorithm, Donald A. Frey, a marine archeologist and physicist, Orkan Köyağasıoğlu, an INA archeologist, and Cristina Zenato, a shark behavior specialist.

On the first day of the conference, Fatma Uruk was the guest of the first Turkish session. Taking part in the Turkish national team many times, and a world record breaker in the “Variable Weight Without Fins” and “Fixed Weight Double Fins” free-diving categories, Fatma Uruk delivered a speech entitled “Free-Diving - Mexican Extreme”.

The second speaker on the first day was Derya Akkaynak, the first Turkish scientist to win the Blavatnik Young Scientist Award, oceanographer, and member of Branch Oceanographic Institute, who made a presentation to the participants entitled “Underwater Image Formation”.

On the second day of the conference, Donald A. Frey and Orkan Köyağasıoğlu came together with the participants in the first session. In the last session of the conference, Sabancı University Sub-Aqua Society hosted Cristina Zenato, a shark behavior specialist, underwater cave researcher, ocean protection champion, photographer, speaker and author since 1994.

Aim of Cristina Zenato’s presentation was to underline the bonding effect of water. With her presentation, she proved once again how sharks, underwater and underwater caves are inter-linked. 

Sabancı University Sub-Aqua Society was founded in 2000 and is one of the best-established societies of Sabancı University. Continuing on its adventures with the participation of new adventurers, the Society has raised more than 1000 divers so far. Growing each day, the Society continues to let its new members meet the beauty of the underwater world.