The University is pleased to announce the recipients of the Distinguished Teachers of the Year Awards for 2008. Prof. Abdullah Atalar, Prof. Selim Aktürk, Assoc. Prof. Marie-Henriette Gates, Asst. Prof. Alev Çınar and Asst. Prof. Ali Aydın Selçuk were chosen for demonstrating outstanding teaching abilities, and for contributing to students' academic and intellectual development. Bilkent News asked this year's "Distinguished Teachers" for their thoughts on receiving this award.
Prof. Abdullah Atalar
I am very much honored to receive this award. It is wonderful to see that my students appreciate me as a teacher. I enjoy teaching because it is a great satisfaction to see the glittering eyes of students when they comprehend a difficult concept. I wish I had more time for teaching. I thank my students and colleagues who nominated me. I am grateful to my wife, Ayşe, because she is the one who suffers when I spend a lot of time for course preparation and “Moodling” at home.
Prof. Selim Aktürk
I am really honored to be a recipient of such a prestigious award. I would like to thank everyone who has participated in the nomination process. How does someone learn "effective teaching"? We could read articles, attend workshops and seminars, and more importantly, observe other faculty members and learn from their experiences. I take this opportunity to thank Prof. Ömer Benli, founding chair of the IE Department who also received this award in 2000, for being an exemplary role model. Things are meaningful when they are shared. I would like to share this award with my colleagues, IE alumni and students, since teaching and conducting research with them has been the Fountain of Youth for me. The past eighteen years at Bilkent University have been a great pleasure. I have had the opportunity to meet hundreds of wonderful students, who have become very successful academicians, CEOs, general managers, directors, etc. Whenever I hear about their success in their selected fields, I take a great pride in thinking that I had the privilege of teaching them. I am a big fan of Pink Floyd, and Roger Waters described teachers and the education system as parts of the "wall." I am very happy to find out that I am not an "another brick on the wall."
Assoc. Prof. Marie-Henriette Gates
 I have been training to be a teacher since childhood. It is my family profession, spanning one century and three generations! But the training phase never ends. Each time I enter the classroom, I feel the same nervous excitement, as if stepping on stage in front of the most demanding audience. Will main points come across? Can I keep students alert throughout the class hour? Will they perceive underlying themes, and draw conclusions instead of getting stuck on detail? Teaching archaeology at Bilkent offers advantages I would not find elsewhere, and they certainly help bring the past into sharper focus. Taking students on fieldtrips to museums and sites, and to work on excavations, gives a direct experience that enhances courses immeasurably. But especially, Bilkent students have, for 18 years, encouraged me to improve in learning my profession. Today, they have awarded me the highest grade. Thank you, dearest students, for your enthusiasm and generosity!
Asst. Prof. Alev Çınar
 In my career as a scholar, I have received other prestigious awards, but I have never felt as honored as I did upon learning that I was the recipient of this award. Since my first day of teaching, 24 years ago, as a Teaching Assistant, I have enjoyed teaching tremendously, every single time I stepped into the classroom. This is mostly because teaching for me is so much more beyond a job or a career and is actually a way of life where I continue to find some of my life's most valuable experiences and lessons. I see the classroom as a place where I have the invaluable chance to interact with intelligent, creative young people in an atmosphere of mutual respect and learning. These young men and women have certainly touched my life in ways that I cannot even begin to put into words, and so I am deeply moved and honored to find that I have also managed to touch their lives. I thank Bilkent University and my Department for allowing me to explore and develop new ways of teaching where mutual learning can be a joyful experience.
Asst. Prof. Ali Aydın Selçuk
 Learning and teaching are two of the greatest fulfillments in life. Although this has always been so for me, it has never been truer than here at Bilkent, where I have felt extremely lucky for the privilege of teaching such wonderful young people since my first day in the classroom. In addition to the very pleasure of teaching Bilkent students, now I am extremely honored that my work has been appreciated so highly by my students and colleagues. I want to thank them all. This award is especially honoring since there are so many good teachers at Bilkent. Perhaps the best way to say "thank you" would be to share the advice of a master teacher, Parker Palmer, not just on authentic teaching but on authentic living in general: “I know of no better way to keep my knowing, my teaching, and myself alive than to keep the vision of truth continually before me.” Thank you.
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