In 2021, Renewable Energy is Slated to Reach Its Highest Share in the Energy Mix since the Industrial Revolution

Sabancı University Istanbul International Center for Energy and Climate IICEC held a webinar titled “Renewable Energy in the World and Turkey: Today and Tomorrow” with the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Dönmez, Founding Chair of Sabancı University Board of Trustees Güler Sabancı, and Executive Director of International Energy Agency (IEA) Dr. Fatih Birol.

Participants of the virtual event noted Turkey's growth in renewable energy production and stated that renewable energy investments across the world were expected to double in the next 5 years. The growth in renewable energy is expected to far exceed the forecasted 7% for this year and reach 18%.

Sabancı University Istanbul International Center for Energy and Climate (IICEC) held a webinar titled “Renewable Energy in the World and Turkey: Today and Tomorrow”. The webinar was held with the participation of the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Dönmez, Founding Chair of Sabancı University Board of Trustees Güler Sabancı, and Executive Director of International Energy Agency (IEA) Dr. Fatih Birol.

Moderated by Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences Deputy Dean Selmiye Alkan Gürsel, the webinar began with introductory remarks by Founding Chair of Sabancı University Board of Trustees Güler Sabancı, who said: “As the pandemic rages on, we must once again meet virtually. I believe that guided by science, the worst of our days will soon be over. The scientific approach and technology are the best tools we have to prepare for the present and future of the energy sector. Strategies, plans, investments, technologies, cooperation and exchange of information on empowering sustainability in economic, social and environmental matters are crucial at times of uncertainty such as this."

Noting Turkey's remarkable steps in many areas of the energy industry, Güler Sabancı continued:

“We can see that the important developments will continue in important and complementary areas like security and diversity of energy supply, reducing import intensity, ensuring further competitiveness of the markets, improving efficiency in the energy supply and demand chain, and developing and disseminating energy technologies. Turkey achieved significant growth in electricity production from renewable energy. We have a firm position in Europe in terms of established renewable capacity. A perspective of growth in renewable energy, focusing on technology, will have great and varied benefits to security of supply, environmental performance, and opportunities for high-value industrialization.”

Emphasizing that energy and climate have long been priorities at Sabancı University, Güler Sabancı said, “We established IICEC 11 years ago as a tripartite thought center between the public sector, industry and academy to contribute to cleaner, safer, and better energy future for economic growth, social development and coming generations. I am delighted to see that IICEC's contribution to these objectives grows."

Reminding IICEC’s pioneer report, the “Turkey Energy Outlook” published in November of last year, Güler Sabancı continued:

“This report was widely appreciated by industry stakeholders and received great feedback. 'Turkey Energy Outlook' met a crucial need in the Turkish energy sector and became a work of reference for all stakeholders. Another ambitious project by IICEC this year will be the 'Turkey Electric Vehicles Outlook'. This report will provide a comprehensive perspective into electric vehicles and the e-mobility ecosystem and growth potential in Turkey. IICEC will continue to contribute to a safer and cleaner energy future with pioneering work and exemplary outcomes."

Executive Director of International Energy Agency (IEA) Dr. Fatih Birol said that the pandemic had devastating effects in 2020 and shared key observations about 2021:

"The worst impact of the pandemic was on human health, of course. The global economy was also devastated. Every country was affected by the economic crisis. However, the outlook turned towards positive for 2021. An expectation emerged that people would be more involved in climate change or clean and sustainable energy in the wake of the pandemic. We took a cautious stance. We believe that energy policies, technologies and costs play just as great a role as human behaviour. We know what happened in the first three months of 2021 and we think that emissions will spike this year, becoming the second greatest spike in history. Europe, Japan, United States, China... many countries have committed to achieving zero emissions by 2050, so the expectation is that emissions will drop, but the actual figures show a widening gap between commitments and reality. The rate at which emissions increase is concerning for the climate."

“There is a silver lining to this dark picture: Renewable energy is growing across the world," said Dr. Fatih Birol, and continued: “In 2021, we believe that the share of renewable energy will reach 30% worldwide. This is the highest it has ever been since the Industrial Revolution. There are two reasons for this: one is incentives by the government. The second is declining costs. We expect the growth in renewable energy to increase even faster.” Saying that one of the key successes in Turkey's energy sector was the giant leap in renewable energy, Dr. Birol pointed out that Turkey had great potential for renewable energy.

RENEWABLE ENERGY IS IN ITS YOUTH IN TURKEY 

The webinar’s keynote speaker was Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Dönmez, who said that the global economy was in a deep crisis due to Covid-19, adding "One of the few sectors that managed to grow in this chaotic environment was renewable energy. It wouldn't be entirely wrong to say that the renewable energy sector overcame the Covid-19 crisis. It developed antibodies against the disease caused by the crisis."

Saying that Turkey's total established capacity was past 97,000 MW and on the way to exceeding 100,000 MW this year, Minister Dönmez continued: “Private sector investments play a large part in the threefold increase in established capacity in the last 20 years. Today, the public sector accounts for 15 to 20% of electricity production. Private investments left public investments in established capacity behind starting in 2011. Renewable energy constitutes 52.3% of the total established capacity today. This was 25.4% in 2011, 43.9% in 2019, and 42.3% in 2020. In the first three months of 2021, 98% of the total capacity commissioned was renewable. We became 12th in the world and 5th in Europe in renewable established capacity. We were the 9th in the world and 4th in Europe to increase its renewable established capacity by the most between 2002 and 2020."

Emphasizing their objective to make Turkey a hub of research, development and innovation in energy technologies and turn energy into a high-value export item, Minister Dönmez said, "Renewable energy is in its youth in Turkey. It is a dynamic sector that grows with new stakeholders every day. In a global system where renewables and efficiency are key in energy production, we have to take our position accordingly."

Recently funded by the European High-Performance Computing Joint Undertaking (EuroHPC JU), the highly ranked SparCity just launched. With three years of duration and a total budget of 2.6M€, this collaborative project between 6 partners in 4 countries aims to build a sustainable exascale ecosystem and increase Europe’s competitiveness. 

SparCity's main goal is to create a supercomputing framework that will provide efficient algorithms and coherent tools specifically designed for maximizing the performance and energy efficiency of sparse computations on emerging High-Performance Computing systems, while also opening up new usage areas for sparse computations in data analytics and deep learning. 

To demonstrate the effectiveness, societal impact, and usability of the framework, the SparCity project will enhance the computing scale and energy efficiency of four challenging real-life applications that come from drastically different domains, namely, computational cardiology, social networks, bioinformatics, and autonomous driving. By targeting this collection of challenging applications, SparCity will develop world-class, extreme-scale, and energy-efficient HPC technologies. 

Sabancı University will take part in the development and implementation of high-performance data processing and machine-learning algorithms for SparCity.  

Kamer Kaya 

"This is an excellent chance for my team at Sabancı University to share our expertise on HPC and work with great researchers on a challenging project which will hopefully change the way we handle extreme-scale problems using sparse data." says Dr. Kamer Kaya, from Sabancı University.  

SparCity involves partnerships with Sabanci Universitesi (Turkey), Simula Research Laboratory (Norway), INESC-ID (Portugal), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet Muenchen (Germany) and Graphcore AS (Norway), with the coordination of Koç University (Turkey).

Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Research and Application Center (SU-IMC) Integrated Manufacturing Webinar Series continues with A. John Hart's "The Trajectory of Metal Additive Manufacturing" seminar.

Please click to register webinar. 

Sabancı University Integrated Manufacturing Research and Application Center's (SU-IMC) thematic seminars/webinars series continues at different levels of academia and industry to understand and prioritize the recent institutional, organizational and technical developments for the Additive Manufacturing. 

SU-IMC Thematic Webinar Series program is as below:

17 March 2021- Amit Bandyopadhyay- 3D Printing of Metals and Ceramics for Structural and Biomedical Applications

24 March 2021- Tarek Zohdi - Modeling and Simulation Tools for Industrial and Societal Research Applications: Digital Twins and Genome-based Machine-learning

31 March 2021 - Brent Stucker - Simulation of Additive Manufacturing: Optimizing Geometry and Process Efficiency

7 April 2021- David Rosen - Multi-scale Design of Fiber-Reinforced Composite Structures for Additive Manufacturing

21 April 2021 - Charlie C. L. Wang - Multi-Axis Additive Manufacturing: Support-free, Mechanical Strength and Motion Planning

28 April 2021- A. John Hart - The Trajectory of Metal Additive Manufacturing

5 May 2021- Albert C. To - Modified Inherent Strain Method for Predicting Residual Distortion and Stress in Laser Powder Bed Fusion Parts

12 May 2021- Ibrahim Karaman - 4-D Printing and Functional Grading via Metal Additive Manufacturing

Three Sabancı University faculty members receive 2021 Academy of Science BAGEP Awards.

The Academy of Science has announced the winners of the 2021 Young Scientist Awards Program (BAGEP). Çiğdem Bağcı, member of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (FASS), has won the 2021 BAGEP award in the field of psychology, Nurdagül Anbar Meidi, member of the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS), in the field of mathematics, and Nüfer Yasin Ateş, member of the Sabancı Business School, in the field of business administration. The award-winning faculty members will conduct their funded research projects for a period of two years.

The Academy of Science's Young Scientist Awards Program (BAGEP) aims to identify and reward the best young academics, and to support them for further research, in addition to encouraging young people to carry out scientific research and rewarding the best examples.

Endowed in 2013, the awards have been presented to 317 scholars so far, and this year, an additional 42 scholars have received the award.

The BAGEP Awards of the Academy of Science are given to academics under the age of 40, and entail a cash prize of TL 20,000 per year for a duration of two years to support their research.

The award ceremony has been postponed due to Covid-19.

For BAGEP 2021 awards, please visit 

https://bilimakademisi.org/bagep-2021-sonuclari-aciklandi/ 

The Sakıp Sabancı International Research Awards, which are endowed in the will of Sakıp Sabancı, the Honorary Chairperson of Sabancı University, and administered under the leadership of Sabancı University Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and Istanbul Policy Center continue to reward scientists in the field of social sciences. Under theme of  "The Post-Corona World and Turkey: Social, Psychological and Political Impacts of the Pandemics”, the 16th Sakıp Sabancı International Research Awards Special Jury Prize was presented to Professor Susan Michie, Director of the Center for Behavior Change at University College London. 

A Fellow of the UK’s Academy of Medical Sciences and the Academy of Social Sciences, Professor Michie is Professor of Health Psychology, Director of the Centre for Behavior Change at University College London, and co-director, fellow and advisor in many research institutions. Being in the front line of the fight against Covid-19, Professor Michie is a member of the Covid-19 Behavioral Science Advisory Group, a sub-group of the UK Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), the Lancet Commission on Covid-19, the Behavioral Predictions and Sciences Technical Board of the WHO and chair of the Academy of Social Science’s ‘Health of People’ project.

Professor Michie’s scientific research has focused on sustainable behavior change required to protect public health and the environment. She has developed genuine theories and evidence-based interventions for behavior change in this field. The projects and programs she has developed through interdisciplinary cooperation with medicine, environmental engineering and computer science, particularly by using machine learning and AI applications effectively, have been implemented in numerous fields. Her two collaborative interdisciplinary projects are the Human Behaviour Change Project and Complex Systems for Sustainability and Health. Professor Michie has more than 500 scientific articles and many books published, and her book “Behavior Change Wheel: A Guide to Designing Interventions” is one of the reference books in the related field. Her scientific work constitutes a rich source for public health programs and public policies in the field of psychological health to be developed during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. Professor Michie is a role model for social scientists not only for her development and implementation of behavior-change models but also for her awareness of social inequalities, and leadership in explaining the social and psychological impact of the Covid-19 to policy-makers and the community. Please click here for more detailed information.

2021-2022 Fall Sabancı Graduate Business School Programs Applications

Sabancı Graduate Business School is accepting applications for the 2021-2022 academic year MBA-Non Thesis, Executive MBA-Non Thesis (EMBA), Professional MBA-Non Thesis, Masters in Finance-Non Thesis (MIF), Masters in Business Analytics-with Thesis (MSc.in BA), Masters in Business Analytics for Professionals-non Thesis (MSc.in BA-NT)  and Management PhD programs. Information regarding these programs can be obtained from the website. Additionally, various scholarships are available for MBA, MSc.in BA-with Thesis and PhD programs.

Please click for application requirements.

Applications for the MBA-NT Program: 

The MBA Program is open to all candidates with an undergraduate degree from an accredited university.

Application Deadline for MBA:

Early Applications: April 16, 2021

Normal & Scholarship Applications: June 11, 2021.

Final Application Deadline: July 09, 2021 (We do not provide scholarships after the scholarship application deadline)

Admission Process:

Online application is required. After an initial screening, eligible candidates are to be interviewed. Interview results and decisions will be mailed to the candidate.

For more information: Didem Kocaer (0216) 483 96 71 or  didem.kocaer@sabanciuniv.edu

Application Deadline for Professional MBA-NT :

Early Applications  : May 28, 2021
Applications             : August 6, 2021

Admission Process: After an initial screening, eligible candidates are to be interviewed. Interview results and decisions will be mailed to the candidate. Applicants may also attend the Sabanci University English proficiency exam that will be held on April 10, May 22, June 19, July 19, August 21, 2021  All applicants who plan to attend SU exams should complete their online application before the exam dates. The spoken English level of the applicant will be evaluated in the interview.

ALES or equivalent test scores are not required for the applications to Executive MBA program.

For more information: (0216) 483 9734 or pmba@sabanciuniv.edu

Application for the Executive MBA-NT (EMBA) Program:

Application Deadline for Executive MBA: 

Early Applications  : May 28, 2021
Applications             : August 6, 2021

Admission Process: After an initial screening, eligible candidates are to be interviewed. Interview results and decisions will be mailed to the candidate. Applicants may also attend the Sabanci University English proficiency exam that will be held on April 10, May 22, June 19, July 19 and August 21, 2021. All applicants who plan to attend SU exams should complete their online application before the exam dates. The spoken English level of the applicant will be evaluated in the interview.

ALES or equivalent test scores are not required for the applications to Executive MBA program.

For more information: Sinem Esen Kavas  sinem.kavas@sabanciuniv.edu 

Application for the Masters in Finance-NT(MiF) Program: 

All candidates who have a 4-year undergraduate degree may apply to the Program.

Application Deadline for MiF: 

Early Applications  : May 28, 2021
Applications             : August 6, 2021

Admission Process: 

Applicants may also attend the Sabanci University English proficiency exam that will be held on April 10, May 22, June 19, July 19, August 21, 2021. All applicants who plan to attend SU exams should complete their online application before the exam dates. 

The spoken English level of the applicant will be evaluated in the interview.

ALES or equivalent test scores are not required for the applications to MiF program.

For more information: (0216) 483 9734 or  mif@sabanciuniv.edu

Application for Masters in Business Analytics for Professionals Non-Thesis Program:

Application Deadline for MS in Business Analytics Non-thesis Program

Early Applications  : May 28, 2021
Applications             : August 6, 2021

Admission Process: After an initial screening, eligible candidates are to be interviewed. Interview results and decisions will be mailed to the candidate. Applicants may also attend the Sabanci University English proficiency exam that will be held on April 10, May 22, June 19, July 19 and August 21, 2021. All applicants who plan to attend SU exams should complete their online application before the exam dates. The spoken English level of the applicant will be evaluated in the interview.

ALES or equivalent test scores are not required for the applications to MS in Business Analytics Non-Thesis program.

For more information: Sinem Esen Kavas  sinem.kavas@sabanciuniv.edu 

Application for the Masters in Business Analytics (MSc. in BA) – Thesis Program: 

All candidates who have a 4-year undergraduate degree may apply to the Program.

Application Deadline for MSc.in BA-With Thesis: 

Early Applications: March 26, 2021

Application Deadline: June 04, 2021

Admission Process: After an initial screening of the documents, eligible candidates will be interviewed. Interview results and decisions will be sent by mail.

For more information: Didem Kocaer (0216) 483 9671 or didem.kocaer@sabanciuniv.edu

Application for the PhD Program:  

Candidates will be accepted to Management and Organization, Business Analytics and Operations Management, Finance and Action Research concentrations.

The PhD program in Management is open to candidates with a background in business, economics, engineering, social or natural sciences.

Early Applications: March 26, 2021

Application Deadline: June 04, 2021

For more information: Didem Kocaer (0216) 483 9671 or didem.kocaer@sabanciuniv.edu

Sabancı Üniversitesi 

Öğrenci Kaynakları Birimi, 

Orta Mahalle, Üniversite Cd. No:27, Tuzla, 34956 Istanbul 

0 (216) 483 90 93 

0 (216) 483 90 73

Please contact studentinfo@sabanciuniv.edu if you have any questions regarding your graduate application.

Sabancı University Graduate School of Social Sciences Graduate Programs (Master’s and Doctorate) 2021–2022 Fall Semester Applications

EARLY APPLICATION DEADLINE: April 2, 2021 (Economics MA/PhD programs only)

REGULAR APPLICATION DEADLINE: June 2, 2021 All programs including Economics MA/PhD programs)

Sabancı University Graduate School of Social Sciences is accepting applications to the following graduate programs for the 2021–2022 academic year.

• Cultural Studies (MA) 

• Economics (MA/PhD) (there will be both early and regular applications)

• Gender Studies (PhD)

• History (MA/PhD)

• Political Science (MA/PhD) 

• Psychology (MSc)

• Turkish Studies (MA) 

• Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design (MA) 

How can I apply?

Candidates must submit an online application at the website below.

http://admission.sabanciuniv.edu

What are the rules and required documents for application?

Please click here for the rules and required documents for master programs application.

Please click here for the rules and required documents for doctorate programs application.

What are the scholarship opportunities?

Candidates may be given various kinds of scholarships based on merit. Please click here to view the scholarship opportunities for graduate programs at Sabancı University.

Application dates

• The early application deadline (only for Economics MA and PhD program) is April 2, 2020.

• The regular application deadline for Cultural Studies (MA), Economics (MA/PhD), Gender Studies (PhD), History (MA/PhD), Political Science (MA/PhD), Psychology (MSc), Turkish Studies (MA), Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design (MA) is June 2, 2021.

What happens after I complete my application?

Candidates shortlisted by the admissions jury of their respective programs may be called in for a written exam or interview. Candidates who live abroad and cannot be interviewed in person may be interviewed via online tools. Interview dates and written exam dates and hours will be announced below. Candidates will be notified of their interview times by email or telephone. Candidates invited for interviews will be notified of the modalities for these interviews.

• Conflict Analysis and Resolution (MA)

  •  Not accepting students this year.

• Cultural Studies (MA)

• • Written exam: None.

  • Interview: June 23, 2021

• Economics (MA/PhD)

  • Written exam: None.

  • Interview: June 24, 2021

• European Studies (MA)

• Not accepting students this year.

• Gender Studies (PhD)

• Written exam: None.
• Interview: June 9, 2021

• History (MA/PhD)

  • Written exam: June 23, 2021

  • Interview: July 1-2, 2021

• Political Science (MA/PhD)

  • Written exam: None.

  • Interview: June 28-29, 2021

• Psychology (MSc)

  • Written exam: None.

  • Interview: June 25, 2021

• Turkish Studies (MA)

  • Written exam: None.

  • Interview: June 30, 2021

• Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design (MA)

  • Written exam: None.

  • Interview: June 25, 2021

How can I get more information?

You may contact the following faculty members for academic issues and questions. You may contact Sabancı University Student Resources for more information regarding application and admission procedures.

• Student Resources

  • Telephone: (216) 483 93 61

  • Email: studentinfo@sabanciuniv.edu 

•  Cultural Studies (MA)

• Asst. Prof. Ateş Altınordu, (216) 483 92 83, ates.altinordu@sabanciuniv.edu 

• Economics (MA/PhD)

  • Asst. Prof. Remzi Kaygusuz, (216) 483 92 44, remzi.kaygusuz@sabanciuniv.edu

• Gender Studies (PhD)

  • Assoc. Prof. Cenk Özbay, (216) 483 92 53, cenk.ozbay@sabanciuniv.edu

• History (MA/PhD)

  • Asst. Prof. Ferenc Péter Csirkés, (216) 483 93 74, ferenc.csirkes@sabanciuniv.edu

• Political Science (MA/PhD)

  • Assoc. Prof. Özge Kemahlıoğlu, (216) 483 92 68, ozge.kemahlioglu@sabanciuniv.edu 

• Psychology (MSc)

  • Asst. Prof. Junko Kanero, (216) 483 93 21, junko.kanero@sabanciuniv.edu

• Turkish Studies (MA)

  • Asst. Prof. Oya Yeğen, (216) 483 93 35, oya.yegen@sabanciuniv.edu 

• Visual Arts and Visual Communication Design (MA)

  • Asst. Prof. Onur Yazıcıgil, (216) 483 93 34, onur.yazicigil@sabanciuniv.edu

Industrial Engineering students Eda Türker and Melissa Ünlü came out in the case analysis competition organized by Yıldız Technical University’s Quality Efficiency Club. 

You can find below the interviews with Eda Türker, who was placed third in the competition, and Melissa Ünlü, who was placed first. 

Hello, and first of all, congratulations. Could you tell us a little bit about yourself? Could you tell us about the process of choosing the Industrial Engineering Program at Sabancı University?   

E.T: Hi, I'm Eda Türker. I’m a junior student at the Industrial Engineering Department with a minor in finance. Sabancı University was my favorite university and my goal throughout high school. Additionally, the opportunity to choose your program later enabled me to understand and choose which engineering program fits me better when I started the university. The reason I chose industrial engineering was that we had a small knowledge of every subject, and we had a chance to gain complete competence in the field of our choosing. Another reason I chose this program is because it gives me the opportunity to work in a very wide range of industries after graduation. 

M.Ü: Hi, I’m Melissa. I'm studying Industrial Engineering at Sabancı University. I'm a junior student. One of the most important reasons I chose Sabancı University was that I had the freedom to decide which program to choose after my first year thanks to the pool program, and that I had the opportunity to consciously find out which program I felt I belonged in. I was very impressed that industrial engineers had competence in many subjects, and I chose industrial engineering because I wanted to improve myself in this field.

Could you tell us about your participation in the case competition and the competition process?

E.T: I learned about and applied to the competition thanks to the e-mail sent by Professor Burak. After the CV qualifier, they asked us to solve a mini case and upload a one-page report to be selected for the competition organized by Yıldız Technical University’s Quality and Efficiency Club. The competition lasted 2 days and we solved 4 cases. Each case group was different, and after the case presentations, company officials gave the groups points. During these four cases, the scores we received in all the groups we were in were collected and our personal score was found. In all of the case solutions on the second day, the groups I was in came first and were given various awards. With all the points calculated, I finished third in the competition with 331.3 points and won a 50% master's scholarship from Koç University.  

M.Ü: I learned about the case competition thanks to the information e-mail sent by Professor Burak to the students. It was a case study competition organized by Yıldız Technical University, in which 24 people participated, passing the pre-selection process after solving a mini case first. It lasted 2 days and was a competition in which we solved the cases of a total of 4 companies (BSH - Otokoç - Yapı Kredi - Abdi Ibrahim) in groups of 4. In each case study, groups were assigned randomly, and the score obtained in that case was added to the individual score of everyone in that group. During the case, we had 5-10 minutes for the total presentation and 40-50 minutes for the preparation stage, and because of this limited timing, group work was very important when solving the case. After these 4 case analyses that I conducted with each different group, I was first among 24 participants thanks to the individual scores I received and I was entitled to receive a full scholarship from Koç University's Master’s Program CEMS.

What would you recommend to students who want to study Industrial Engineering at Sabancı University?

E.T: I think it is a great privilege to study industrial engineering at Sabancı University. In particular, the fact that we can choose the courses we want allows us to take courses in whatever field we want to focus on. In short, I and a person I am in the same semester with can graduate without taking any courses together other than mandatory courses. I think that's a big advantage. We can classify industrial engineering as a type of social engineering, so you have to be active in club activities and events. It will also be useful for you to try to participate in competitions such as this case competition, to all events open to everyone. I entered this competition without any expectations of a win or rank. My only goal was to see more cases, get used to solving cases, and gain experience for cases that need to be solved in business life in the future. In conclusion, I suggest you gain experience by participating in as many events and competitions as possible. 

M.Ü: Sabancı University not only aims to be successful in courses, but also helps us improve ourselves in different areas. In industrial engineering, improving ourselves in different areas and making a difference is a very important element. Sabancı University offers us these opportunities; the important thing is that we, the students should be able to take advantage of these opportunities and not hesitate to participate in such activities. 

We wish them continued success. 

The scientific paper prepared by researchers including Ersin Göğüş, a Faculty Member at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences of Sabancı University, on “Discovery of Magnetar in Nearby Galaxy” was published in the January 14 issue of Nature. 

Detailed investigations conducted by an international consortium, including Ersin Göğüş, a Faculty Member at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences of Sabancı University, revealed sudden changes in the flare spectrum in short timescales, such as one thousandth of a second. It is suggested that the high-energy radiation emitted by the magnetar flare was caused by relativistic plasma in a very strong magnetic field. Full details of the study are covered in this article published in the January 14 issue of Nature. 

Magnetar 

Magnetars are structures with the most intense magnetic fields in the universe. These are actually neutron stars, but different from an ordinary neutron star. The magnetic field intensity of a magnetar is one trillion times of the magnetic field of the Sun. Magnetic fields of this intensity lead to the destruction of neutron star surfaces, which is a kind of stellar earthquake. These earthquakes, in turn, cause short-term X-ray and gamma-ray flares, which emit an enormous amount of energy. These are also referred to magnetar flares. With fairly rare giant magnetar flares, the total energy the Sun can emit over its life span of about 10 billion years is released in just seconds. 

Ersin Göğüş said the following regarding the study: “Giant magnetar flares, which are very rare, are such high-energy events that if they happen in our own galaxy, that is, they come from thousands of light years away, they paralyze gamma-ray telescopes in the Earth’s orbit. This event, observed from a galaxy 11 million light-years away, opened a very important door. Because this is the first time we have observed the first phase of these events where the most energy is emitted with such high resolution. In this way, we were able to access comprehensive information about the radiation properties of plasma exposed to an extremely intense magnetic field.”

The project in which Ünal Ertan, a Faculty Member at the Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS), was found eligible for support under the TÜBİTAK 1001 Program.  

Ünal Ertan's project, which was found eligible for support under the 1001 Scientific and Technological Research Projects Support Program, is titled "On The Rotational Phases of Mass-transferring Neutron Stars".

The main goal of this project is to explain some of the radiation and rotational properties of some neutron star systems that have not yet been explained within the framework of a newly developed theoretical model.  

Neutron stars

Neutron stars are bodies with the largest mass density, the strongest magnetic fields, and the highest rotational speeds that can be directly observed in the universe. With a mass close to the Sun and a radius of 10 km, these bodies can rotate hundreds of times per second around their axis of rotation. Neutron stars offer a great laboratory where physics can be studied and tested under these extreme conditions. Some of these stars are located in double star systems, and matter flows over them from a normal co-star such as the Sun. Because they are very dense, mass-transferring neutron stars are very powerful X-ray sources.

These binary systems are called X-ray binary stars. The interaction of the dipole magnetic field of the neutron star with the transferred mass can accelerate and slow down the rotation of the neutron star and determine its electromagnetic radiation properties. In this project, it is aimed to explain some characteristic rotation and accompanying radiation behaviors of X-ray binary stars that cannot be explained by traditional models based on theoretical and numerical studies.     

Ünal Ertan said the following regarding the project’s significance. "If successful, the project has the potential to solve some important problems related to neutron stars that have not been understood for many years in high energy astrophysics. We believe that the wide-ranging theoretical model that we have developed within this framework is important in that it will contribute to subsequent scientific studies.” 

Three doctoral students from Sabancı University will be involved in the two-year project under the leadership of FENS Faculty Member Ünal Ertan. In addition, faculty members from Istanbul University and Ege University will provide support to the project as researchers.