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"

Sabancı University Center of Excellence in Finance (CEF), founded under the sponsorship of Akbank, starts its new certificate program titled “Behavioral Finance – Theory and Practice”

Behavioral finance is a relatively new but quickly expanding field that seeks to provide explanations for people’s financial decisions by combining behavioral and cognitive psychological theory with conventional economics and finance. 

Neoclassical economics assume that; i) all individuals act rationally to maximize their utility for both monetary and non-monetary gains, and ii) markets are fully efficient and prices reflect all available, relevant information for all asset classes. However, in reality, these assumptions often do not hold. Behavioral finance helps explain why and how markets may be inefficient, why people are imperfect processors of information and why they are often subject to biases, errors and perceptual illusions. 

The educational program, which will be lectured by Attila Köksal, an instructor at Sabancı University, aims to be a guide to understanding the fundamentals of behavioral finance and reasons and effects of irrational investor behavior.  Throughout the program, psychological biases that effect the financial decision-making process and their impacts on financial markets and on people’s lives will be examined.

The course will be supported by real-life case studies, analyses of investor behavior, cases of behavioral interventions to modify investor behavior and a Q&A session with an investment practitioner.

The course will be held online. For more information please click here.

***

About Attila Köksal

Attila Köksal graduated from the Mechanical Engineering Department of Boğaziçi University in 1983 and received an MBA degree from Philadelphia Drexel University in 1985. He began his investment banking career at the Center for International Financial Research Inc. in Princeton, NJ. Throughout his career, he held managerial positions in a number of Turkish banks, brokerage houses and asset management companies. Mr. Köksal served as the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Turkish Capital Markets Association between 2011 and 2014. He also held board positions at the Turkish stock exchange (Borsa İstanbul) and at the derivatives exchange of Turkey (VOB A.Ş.).

He also served six years on the global board of the CFA Institute. He is currently a member of the board of directors of Turkish Digital Technologies A.Ş., a subsidiary of Turkish Bank, Türk Sigorta and WWF Turkey. He has been the Chairman of the Board of the Financial Literacy and Inclusion Association (FODER) since April 2019.

Mr. Köksal co-authored two books under the "Geleceğe Yatırım – Investing for the Future" series. These books aim to educate teenagers and families on savings and investments. His latest book, "Parasal Konularda Yaptığımız Hatalar – What We Do Wrong On Monetary Matters" depicts the negative effects of behavioral biases and the lack of financial literacy on our financial decisions. Mr. Köksal designs and delivers courses and lectures on investments, financial advisory and asset management. He has been on the advisory board of the Masters in Finance program at Sabancı University since 2011. He also teaches a Behavioral Finance course at Sabancı University.

Canan Atılgan, member of Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences (FENS), is assuming important international roles in the field of biophysics.

Canan Atılgan has started to act as Turkish ambassador of the American Biophysical Society’s (BPS) Ambassador Program. Assuming the role for a period of three years, Atılgan introduces the BPS’ events and the Ambassador Program to Turkish scientists, and promotes the program during various events organized by student congresses and clubs in Turkey. Pointing out that career programs for students attracted particular attention, Canan Atılgan said the following: “Every year I attend BPS Annual Meetings. Our next meeting will be held in February 2022. I also take part in planning committees of the BPS. Biophysics is a field beyond biology and physics; it is an inclusive, inter-disciplinary field that can be attractive for students with various backgrounds ranging from computer science to materials science, and from chemistry to mechanical engineering. If we can introduce this field to young talents at an early stage of their careers and guide them to research in this field, we can offer them a path where they can be involved in breakthrough discoveries in fields such as drug design, molecular biology, new materials discovery and even the design of new experimental characterization methods”.

To continue to develop biophysics as an inclusive, interdisciplinary international field, the Ambassador Program will create a global network of BPS members. They will serve as local Society contact points in their specific-countries or regions to promote the field and foster conversations around biophysics. Ambassadors will play a key role in providing the Society with relevant local content to share with membership and will serve as BPS’s go-to person in their local region. Through this program, the Society hopes to further develop its advocacy efforts and to grow the biophysics network around the world by educating and inspiring talents to pursue careers in biophysics.

In addition, Canan Atılgan recently assumed a role on the editorial board of Proteins: Structure, Function and Bioinformatics journal. One of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world, Proteins is a monthly publication established in 1986 by Cyrus Levinthal, who is amongst the forefathers of the field of molecular biology. The journal covers research on all areas of protein research, including structure, function, computation, genetics, and design. Canan Atılgan acts as an editor of articles in the field of computational biology and those at the intersection of experimental and theoretical methods. Atilgan herself has been publishing her research in the journal since 2001.

Operational Excellence ManagerŞebnem Arı Aktaş, 

The Direct Digital Manufacturing Platform (DiMAP) infrastructure development project led by Sabancı University was recognized by Turkish Republic Minister of Industry and Technology, Mustafa Varank, during the "Impact and Beyond: Experience Sharing and Networking" event. A recognition plaque was presented to L. Taner TUNÇ, the Academic Director of the Integrated Manufacturing Technologies Research and Application Center (SU-IMC), on behalf of Sabanci University.

DiMAP, funded by the "Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA)" framework established in collaboration with Turkish Republic and European Union as part of the "Competitive Sectors Programme" launched by Turkish Republic Ministry of Industry and Technology, is a platform where smart and digital manufacturing approaches will be implemented by utilizing additive manufacturing technologies in direct manufacture of complex, critical and high value-added functional components designed in automotive and aerospace industries. Bursa Industrialists and Businessmen Association (BÜSİAD), Kocaeli Chamber of Industry (KOSANO), Composite Industrialists' Association, East Marmara Development Agency (MARKA), SAHA Istanbul and Technopark Istanbul are also involved in the development of this platform. In this context, by the help of the activities committed to be performed by 2032, it is aimed to increase the competency of SMEs in direct digital manufacturing technologies to help them in becoming more competitive in such high value-added industries. Through DIMAP, technical training and awareness activities will be organized in order to strengthen the capacity of SMEs in Istanbul, Kocaeli and Bursa region along with the aim of increased access to financial supports through international grant applications. The preparation period of DiMAP infrastructure, which will also host various activities to increase the awareness of stakeholders and collaboration among those in such technologies, has been completed by a wide participation of colleagues especially from SU-IMC, FENS and SUATT, as listed below (alphabetically sorted according to surname based on the units):

Vice President and FENS Faculty Member Mehmet Yıldız, FENS Faculty Member Bahattin Koç, University of Bristol Senior Research Associate Eralp Demir, SUATT FENS Project Partners Manager Can Kartoğlu, FENS Project Partner Dilem Hızlan, Project Management Office Specialist Sezen Sefayi and Abdurrahman Türk, FENS and SU-IMC Faculty Members Burcu Saner Okan, Hatice Sinem Şaş, University of Delaware Composite Materials Center Researcher Thomas Cender, METU Faculty Member Eda Aydoğan Güngör, SU-IMC Project Engineer Murat IŞIK, University of Liverpool Researcher İsa Emami Tabrizi, SU-IMC Technical Manager Orkun Seçer, Operational Excellence Manager Şebnem Arı Aktaş, Facility Management Leader Nuray Tatlı, R&D Laboratory Specialist Hüseyin Çeçen, Building and Laboratory Specialist Turgay Gönül.

Sabancı University Istanbul International Center for Energy and Climate (IICEC) has released the twenty-third issue of IICEC Energy Market Newsletter.

Please click to read IICEC Energy Market Newsletter

Sabancı University Executive MBA program (EMBA) moved up by 1 place and ranked 65^th in the QS Global Executive MBA Rankings, and became the only Turkish university in the top 100.  

Sabancı University Business School continued to rise in the 2021 Global Executive MBA Rankings published by QS World University, which lists the best Executive MBA programs in the world.

Ranking 65^th among the best Executive MBA programs in the world, Sabancı University became the only Turkish university to enter the list. Ranking 28^th, up by 3 places over the previous year, in the European rankings, Sabancı University maintained its leading position in this region.

Sabancı University Executive MBA program obtained the most successful results in “Career Progression”, “Manager Profile” and “Diversity Ratio” categories. Accordingly, looking at the career journeys of the alumni, there was 83% of increase in their salary and promotions while the alumni had a success ratio of 57% in terms of promotion to executive positions. Sabancı University had a score of 52% in the category of diversity, which covers representation of people with different citizenships and women.

Nihat Kasap, Dean of Sabancı Business School said: “Our Executive MBA program, which we have designed to raise the leaders of tomorrow who can make a difference in the business world, brings theory and practice together. Our school offers one of the best Executive MBA programs through its international educational trip to Columbia Business School and the world-class course content. We are also proud to see that our success is recognized by international ranking institutions.”

In the context of the annual “QS Global Executive MBA Rankings”, programs are evaluated based on approximately 10 criteria ranging from the university’s academic reputation to alumni career progression.

You can reach QS Global Executive MBA Rankings here.