57 Notable alumni of
Middle East Technical University
Updated:
Middle East Technical University is 669th in the world, 136th in Asia, and 6th in Turkey by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 57 notable alumni from Middle East Technical University sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Hamid Karzai
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Hamid Karzai is an Afghan politician who served as the fourth president of Afghanistan from July 2002 to September 2014, including as the first elected president of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan from December 2004 to September 2014. He previously served as Chairman of the Afghan Interim Administration from December 2001 to July 2002. He is the chief (khān) of the Popalzai Durrani tribe of Pashtuns in Kandahar Province.
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Elif Şafak
- Occupations
- journalistnovelistwriterinternational forum participant
- Biography
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Elif Shafak is a Turkish-British novelist, essayist, public speaker, political scientist and activist.
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Ali Babacan
- Occupations
- engineerinternational forum participantpoliticiandiplomat
- Biography
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Ali Babacan is a Turkish politician, economist, and engineer. He is the founder and current leader of the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA). He served 13 years as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Minister of Economy, Chief Negotiator for the EU and Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey from 2002 to 2015. He was a member of the parliament as well.
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Onur Saylak
- Occupations
- actorfilm directortelevision director
- Biography
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Arif Onur Saylak is a Turkish actor, filmmaker and director. He was married for six years to Tuba Büyüküstün, with whom he has twin daughters.
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Can Dündar
- Occupations
- journalistdocumentarianscreenwritercolumnist
- Biography
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Can Dündar is a Turkish journalist, columnist and documentarian. Editor-in-chief of center-left Cumhuriyet newspaper until August 2016, he was arrested in November 2015 after his newspaper published footage showing the State Intelligence MİT sending weapons to Syrian Islamist fighters.
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Michael Brooks
- Years
- 1983-2020 (aged 37)
- Occupations
- writertalk show hostpolitical pundittelevision producerpodcaster
- Biography
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Michael Jamal Brooks was an American talk show host, writer, political commentator, and comedian. While co-hosting The Majority Report with Sam Seder, he launched The Michael Brooks Show in August 2017 and provided commentary for media outlets, making regular appearances on shows such as The Young Turks. Brooks contributed to various publications, including HuffPost, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, openDemocracy, and Jacobin. His book Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right was published by Zero Books in April 2020.
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Şebnem Ferah
- Occupations
- songwritercomposermusiciansinger
- Biography
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Şebnem Ferah is a Turkish singer, songwriter, composer, and guitarist. She was the lead vocalist of the all-female hard rock band Volvox until 1994, after which she went on to pursue an illustrious solo career. Her music style varies from pop rock to hard rock though her later albums have progressively incorporated more of the hard rock sound.
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Mustafa Akıncı
- Occupations
- politicianinternational forum participantarchitect
- Biography
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Mustafa Akıncı is a Turkish Cypriot politician who was the president of Northern Cyprus from April 2015 until October 2020.
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Selin Sayek Böke
- Occupations
- politicianacademiceconomist
- Biography
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Selin Sayek Böke is a Turkish politician, member of the Republican People's Party (CHP), who has served as a Member of Parliament for İzmir's second electoral district since 7 June 2015. She was first elected at the June 2015 general election. She currently serves as the deputy leader of the CHP responsible for economic policies. Born in the United States, she worked in economics, notably as a lecturer and assistant professor at American universities, before moving to Turkey, the country of her parents.
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Cevdet Yılmaz
- Occupations
- politicianbusinessperson
- Biography
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Cevdet Yılmaz is a Turkish politician who is currently serving as the vice president of Turkey. Previously, he served as a Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey in the interim election government formed by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu from 28 August to 17 November 2015. He previously served as the Minister of Development from 2011 to 2015 and again from 2015 to 2016.
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Eren Bali
- Occupations
- international forum participant
- Biography
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Eren Bali is a Turkish engineer and technology entrepreneur based in the United States. He was the founding CEO of Udemy, a platform and marketplace for massive open online courses (MOOCs), and he is now the founder and CEO of Carbon Health, a primary healthcare franchise based in San Francisco.
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Osman Soykut
- Occupations
- television actoractor
- Biography
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Osman Soykut, better known by his stage name Ozman Sirgood, is an American actor of Turkish and Dagestani heritage.
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Öztürk Yılmaz
- Occupations
- politiciandiplomat
- Biography
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Öztürk Yılmaz is a Turkish former diplomat and politician. Having served as the Turkish embassy secretary to Kyrgyzstan and Brazil, he was appointed as the Consul General of Turkey to Mosul in 2013. He was taken hostage in June 2014 and held for 101 days along with 48 other diplomats after Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants took over the city, being released under undisclosed circumstances by the Turkish National Intelligence Organisation (MİT) on 20 September 2014. He was elected as a Member of Parliament for the electoral district of Ardahan from the Republican People's Party (CHP) in November 2015 general election. In 2018, Yılmaz became an independent. In 2020, Yılmaz founded the Innovation Party.
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Mustafa Varank
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Mustafa Varank is a Turkish politician, bureaucrat and academician who previously served as the Minister of Industry and Technology.
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İlhan Kesici
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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İlhan Kesici is a Turkish politician from the Republican People's Party (CHP), who has served as the Member of Parliament for Istanbul's first electoral district since 2015. He previously served as a CHP MP for the same district from 2007 to 2011 and as an MP for Bursa from 1995 to 1999 while he was a member of the Motherland Party (ANAP). In August 2015, he was offered a ministerial position in the interim election government formed by Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, which he turned down.
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Fikri Işık
- Occupations
- politicianteacher
- Biography
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Fikri Işık MP is a Turkish politician who served as the last Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey from 2017 to 2018. Previously, he served as Minister of Science, Industry and Technology from 2013 to 2016 and Minister of National Defense from 2016 to 2017. He is a Member of Parliament representing the Kocaeli Province on behalf of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), from 2007 to 2023. Before politics, Işık was an educator.
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Nabi Avcı
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Nabi Avcı is a Turkish academic, writer and politician who was formerly chief advisor to the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
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Mehmet Ali Talat
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Mehmet Ali Talat is a Turkish Cypriot politician who served as the president of Northern Cyprus from 2005 to 2010. Talat was the leader of the social democratic Republican Turkish Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyetçi Türk Partisi, CTP), from 1996 to 2005 and 2015 to 2016. He became prime minister in 2004, and subsequently won the presidential election held on 17 April 2005. Talat was inaugurated on 25 April 2005, succeeding retiring leader Rauf Denktaş. He lost the presidential election of 2010 and was replaced by Derviş Eroğlu as President.
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Taner Akçam
- Occupations
- historianfilm directoruniversity teachersociologisthuman rights activist
- Biography
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Altuğ Taner Akçam is a Turkish-German historian and sociologist. During the 1990s, he was the first Turkish scholar to acknowledge the Armenian genocide, and has written several books on the genocide, such as A Shameful Act (1999), From Empire to Republic: Turkish Nationalism and the Armenian Genocide (2004), The Young Turks' Crime Against Humanity (2012), and Killing Orders (2018). He is recognized as a "leading international authority" on the subject. Akçam's frequent participation in public debates on the legacy of the genocide have been compared to Theodor Adorno's role in postwar Germany.
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Amir Farshad Ebrahimi
- Occupations
- activistjournalistblogger
- Biography
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Amir Farshad Ebrahimi is a founding and former member of hard-line pressure group Ansar-e Hezbollah, a former member of the Basij militia, and an Iranian journalist. Quitting Ansar-e Hezbollah after its involvement in the attack on students in 1999, he was imprisoned in Iran, fled to Turkey and then Germany, where as of 2009 he worked to publicly identify members of plain-clothed men who beat up Iranian protesters of the disputed election.
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Emin Çölaşan
- Occupations
- writerjournalist
- Biography
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Emin Çölaşan is a Turkish investigative journalist, whose daily column appeared in the mass-circulation newspaper, Istanbul-based Hürriyet, for 22 years, from 1985 to 2007. Since 2007, he continues his column in Sözcü.
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Aylin Nazlıaka
- Occupations
- politicianbusinesspersoneconomist
- Biography
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Aylin Nazlıaka is a Turkish politician and businesswoman from the Republican People's Party.
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Erdem Başçı
- Occupations
- engineerinternational forum participanteconomist
- Biography
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Erdem Başçı is a Turkish economist and the former Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey in 2010s.
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Suat Günsel
- Occupations
- entrepreneur
- Biography
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Suat İrfan Günsel is a Turkish Cypriot property developer, businessman and founder and 100% owner of Cyprus's private Near East University. In 2011, Forbes ranked him as the second richest person in Cyprus and the 1,140th richest person in the world with a net worth of $2 billion.
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Alparslan Bayraktar
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Alparslan Bayraktar is a Turkish academic, engineer, and politician, who has served as the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources since 2023. Prior to his appointment, Bayraktar held several positions within the ministry, including as deputy minister and Commissioner of the Energy Market Regulatory Authority. Prior to his public career, he worked in the private sector in Turkey and abroad. Bayraktar has been the chair of the World Energy Council Türkiye since 2017, and the Istanbul Center for Regulation since 2018.
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Bülent Yıldırım
- Occupations
- association football refereeassociation football player
- Biography
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Bülent Yıldırım is a Turkish football referee.
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Hilmi Güler
- Occupations
- international forum participantpolitician
- Biography
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Mehmet Hilmi Güler is a Turkish politician and metallurgical engineer. He was the Energy and Natural Resources Minister of Turkey in 2002–2009. He served as the general director of the Machines and Chemical Industries Board (MKEK) and Etibank. He was a founding member of the currently ruling AKP.
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Haydar Ergülen
- Occupations
- poet
- Biography
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Haydar Ergülen is a Turkish poet., he graduated from the Sociology Department at Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi (Middle East Technical University) in Ankara.
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Abdullah Atalar
- Occupations
- engineer
- Biography
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Abdullah Atalar is a Turkish scientist and academic. Atalar was the Rector of İhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University, and a professor at Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. He received B.S. degree from Middle East Technical University, in 1974, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Stanford University in 1976 and 1978, respectively, all in Electrical Engineering. His thesis work was on reflection acoustic microscopy.
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Ece Sükan
- Occupations
- journalist
- Biography
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Ece Sükan is a Turkish actress and stylist, creative director and fashion editor who works in Istanbul and New York. She has been called a "Turkish street style star."
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Ataç İmamoğlu
- Occupations
- university teacherphysicistacademic
- Biography
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Ataç İmamoğlu is a Turkish-Swiss physicist working on quantum optics and quantum computation. His academic interests are quantum optics, semiconductor physics, and nonlinear optics.
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Haydar Akar
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Haydar Akar, is a Turkish politician, who is currently Deputy Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey since 16 July 2020.
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Süreyya Ciliv
- Occupations
- businesspersonentrepreneur
- Biography
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Sureyya Ciliv is a business executive who is currently Chairman of System Capital, System Morgan and Kuika Inc. Between 2007 - 2015, Ciliv was the Chief Executive Officer of Turkcell Group - the leading technology and communications company in Turkey, a NYSE listed company with 72 million subscribers in 8 countries. Previously, he held executive positions at Microsoft Corporation between 1997 - 2007. Sureyya Ciliv received the Global CEO of the Year Award at World Communication Awards in 2009.
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Asli Sumen
- Occupations
- dancermodeltelevision actor
- Biography
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Aslı Sümen is a Turkish actress, model and beauty pageant titleholder who was selected as Miss Turkey 2017.
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Ali Dinçer
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Ali Dinçer was a Turkish mechanical engineer, politician, former Mayor of Ankara and former government minister.
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Erol Gelenbe
- Occupations
- engineercomputer scientist
- Biography
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Sami Erol Gelenbe, a Turkish and French computer scientist, electronic engineer and applied mathematician, pioneered the field of Computer System and Network Performance. Currently Professor in the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Informatics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (2017- ), he is also an Associate Researcher in the I3S Laboratory (CNRS, University of Côte d'Azur, Nice) and Abraham de Moivre Laboratory (CNRS, Imperial College). Fellow of several National Academies, he Chairs the Informatics Section of Academia Europaea since 2023. His previous Professorial Chairs include the University of Liège (1974-1979), University Paris-Saclay (1979-1986), University Paris Descartes (1986-2005), NJIT (1991-93), ECE Chair at Duke University (1993-1998), University Chair Professor and Director of EECS, University of Central Florida (1998-2003), and Dennis Gabor Professor and Head of Intelligent Systems and Networks, Imperial College (2003-2019).
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Muhammed Bozdağ
- Occupations
- short-track speed skaterwriterscientist
- Biography
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Muhammed Bozdağ is a Turkish writer who publishes primarily self-help literature based on a blend of Islamic and New Age concepts.
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Salih Memecan
- Occupations
- international forum participantcartoonist
- Biography
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Salih Memecan is a Turkish editorial caricaturist and cartoonist. Memecan's political cartoon strip, Bizimcity, and comics cartoon strip, Sizinkiler, have been published daily in Sabah newspaper, one of the largest in Turkey, and weekly in the Aktüel magazine. The New York Times, The Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Baltimore Sun and The Philadelphia Inquirer have published Memecan's editorial cartoons.
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Hidayet Şefkatli Tuksal
- Occupations
- authorjournalist
- Biography
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Hidayet Şefkatli Tuksal is a Turkish human rights activist, Islamic feminist and columnist. She lectures in theology at Mardin Artuklu University.
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Rita Orji
- Born in
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Nigeria - Occupations
- computer scientist
- Biography
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Rita Orji is a Nigerian-Canadian computer scientist who is a Canada Research Chair in Persuasive Technology and the Director of the Persuasive Computing Lab at Dalhousie University. Her work is in the area of human–computer interaction with a major focus on designing interactive systems to achieve health and well being objectives. She has won over 70 awards and recognitions from both national and international organizations. She has addressed a United Nations panel about the status of women and at the Parliament of Canada.
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Ali Nihat Yazıcı
- Occupations
- engineerchess player
- Biography
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Ali Nihat Yazıcı is the head of Turkish Chess Federation.
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Güven Sak
- Occupations
- economist
- Biography
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Güven Sak is a Turkish economist and academic.
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Orkun Yazgan
- Occupations
- presenter
- Biography
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Orkun Yazgan is a Turkish TV presenter and musician.
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Halil Mete Soner
- Occupations
- mathematician
- Biography
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Halil Mete Soner is a Turkish American mathematician born in Ankara. Soner's current research interests are nonlinear partial differential equations; asymptotic analysis of Ginzburg-Landau type systems, viscosity solutions, and mathematical finance.
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Derya Akkaynak
- Occupations
- scientistacademic
- Biography
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Derya Akkaynak is a Turkish mechanical engineer and oceanographer at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute. She was a 2019 finalist for the Blavatnik Awards for Young Scientists.
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Ilkay Altintas
- Occupations
- data scientistcomputer scientist
- Biography
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Ilkay Altintas is a Turkish-American data and computer scientist, and researcher in the domain of supercomputing and high-performance computing applications. Since 2015, Altintas has served as chief data science officer of the San Diego Supercomputer Center, at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), where she has also served as founder and director of the Workflows for Data Science Center of Excellence (WorDS) since 2014, as well as founder and director of the WIFIRE lab. Altintas is also the co-initiator of the Kepler scientific workflow system, an open-source platform that endows research scientists with the ability to readily collaborate, share, and design scientific workflows.
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Sevda Karaca Demir
- Occupations
- politicianjournalist
- Biography
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Sevda Karaca Demir is a journalist and politician of the Labour Party (EMEP). Since June 2023 she is a member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey representing Gaziantep. Before she was a journalist for the newspaper Evrensel.
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Utku Ünal
- Years
- 1969-.. (age 55)
- Occupations
- musician
- Biography
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Utku Ünal is a Turkish musician.
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Pembe Candaner
- Occupations
- businessperson
- Biography
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Pembe Candaner is a Turkish businesswoman, human resources expert and consultant, author, speaker, columnist and host of her TV show. Candaner served as the CEO of major corporations such as Adecco SA Turkey and Kariyer.net. She is a member of TUSIAD (Turkish Industry and Business Association), the top business association of Turkey and Society for Human Resource Management. Additionally to her career in private sector, she authored 4 books, held a column in daily Sabah and currently has a column in CEO Life Magazine. She is a member of Board of Advisors of Forbes Magazine in Turkey and hosted her TV show at ‘Artı Bir TV’ about Woman Leaders and Entrepreneurs. Candaner was awarded as the Business Woman of the year 2003, by the Dunya Newspaper.
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Levent Gürel
- Occupations
- university teacherengineerscientist
- Biography
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Levent Gürel is a Turkish scientist and electrical engineer. He was the director of Computational Electromagnetics Research Center (BiLCEM) and a professor in the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering at the Bilkent University, Turkey until November 2014. Currently, he is serving as an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. He is also serving as the founder and CEO of ABAKUS Computing Technologies.
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Turhan Erdoğan
- Enrolled in Middle East Technical University
- In 1963 graduated with Master of Science
- Occupations
- academic
- Biography
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Turhan Yaşar Erdoğan was a Turkish academic in civil engineering.
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Erdem Duhan Özensoy
- Occupations
- businesspersonengineermetallurgist
- Biography
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Erdem Duhan Özensoy is a Turkish businessman and industrialist. Born in Ankara as the only son of one of Erol Ozensoy, he attended high school at Ted Ankara College. Duhan then studied at the Middle East Technical University and received his B.Sc. in Metallurgy & Materials Engineering with honors degree. Duhan is known for his works in stealth technology and low observability materials for the defence industry. He is currently a board member of Kimetsan company.
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Nader Al-Khateeb
- Years
- 1960-.. (age 64)
- Biography
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Nader Al-Khateeb is the General Director of the Water and Environmental Development Organization (WEDO), a non-profit Palestinian organization that promotes a number of environmental programs and projects centered on water quality control, water conservation, wastewater treatment and reuse, as well as solid waste management and recycling. He was also the Palestinian Director of EcoPeace Middle East (formerly Friends of the Earth Middle East (FoEME)). EcoPeace Middle East is a unique regional organization that brings together Jordanian, Palestinian and Israeli environmentalists to promote sustainable development and advance peace efforts in the Middle East. It has offices in Amman, Bethlehem and Tel Aviv, employs 40 paid staff and actively involves hundreds of volunteers.
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M. Tamer Özsu
- Enrolled in Middle East Technical University
- 1970-1974 graduated with Bachelor of Science
- 1975-1978 graduated with Master of Science
- Occupations
- computer scientist
- Biography
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M. Tamer Özsu, FRSC is a Turkish Canadian computer scientist working in the area of distributed and parallel data management. He is a University Professor in the David R. Cheriton School of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo.
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Mehrafza Mirzazad Barijugh
- Occupations
- designer
- Biography
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Mehrafza Mirzazad Barijugh is an Iranian industrial designer, living in the United States. She completed her studies in industrial design in Turkey, at Middle East Technical University (METU). In 2010, she became the first female designer from either Iran or Turkey to be presented with the Red Dot Award: Design Concept Best of the Best prize for her ETU (Emergency Transporter Unit for Amputated Body Parts) design.
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Hakan Çakıl
- Occupations
- diplomatbureaucrat
- Biography
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Hakan Çakıl is a Turkish diplomat and ambassador. He served as the Turkish ambassador to Lebanon from April 7, 2018, to February 28, 2021, and during his tenure in Beirut, he experienced the massive explosion on August 4, 2020. The explosion caused significant damage to the ambassador's residence, although Çakıl himself was not injured.
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Yaman Yener
- Occupations
- scientistacademic
- Biography
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Yaman Yener was a Turkish-American scientist.
