2012 İhsan Doğramacı Memorial Conference Highlights the Translation of Basic Research to Medical Advancement
Photographs by Aydın Ramazanoğlu
On November 12, Professors Peter Walter and Gökhan Hotamışlıgil delivered lectures at the İhsan Doğramacı Memorial Conference entitled "The Endoplasmic Reticulum: Homeostasis and Disease." The lectures were preceded by introductory remarks from the dean of science, Prof. Tayfun Özçelik, who commented on Prof. İhsan Doğramacı's accomplishments at home and abroad, from the founding of Hacettepe and Bilkent Universities to his role in the founding of the World Health Organization. This was followed by a short performance by the Bilkent University Faculty of Music Brass Ensemble, after which Assist. Prof. Ebru Erbay, representing the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics (which organized the event), introduced the conference speakers.
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Prof. Erdal Arıkan Receives IEEE W. R. G. Baker Award
Prof. Erdal Arıkan of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering is the recipient of the 2013 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) W. R. G. Baker Award for his paper "Channel Polarization: A Method for Constructing Capacity-Achieving Codes for Symmetric Binary-Input Channels," published in the IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, July 2009.
The IEEE W. R. G. Baker Award was established in 1956 and is presented by the IEEE Board of Directors for the most outstanding paper reporting original work published in any IEEE archival publication (such as transactions, journals and letters), magazine, or proceedings. The paper must have been published during a three- to five-year window prior to the presentation year of the award, on the fundamentals of electrical engineering, electronics, computing, and related arts and sciences as represented by IEEE.
Prof. Arıkan's paper resolved a key problem in information theory that had remained outstanding since the field was established in 1948 by the US mathematician and engineer C. E. Shannon.
Prof. Arıkan joined the faculty of Bilkent University in 1987 after a brief period as assistant professor at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. He received his BS degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1981 and his MS and PhD degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982 and 1986, all in electrical engineering.
World Philosophy Day: Future Generations
World Philosophy Day was introduced in 2002 by UNESCO “to honor philosophical reflection in the entire world by opening up free and accessible spaces.” Bilkent University's Department of Philosophy has been celebrating this tradition since 2005. To mark this year's UNESCO World Philosophy Day -- for which the designated theme is "Future Generations" -- the Department of Philosophy, together with the Bilkent Philosophy Society, is organizing a two-day event.
The event will take place on the afternoon of Thursday, November 22 and the morning of Friday, November 23, in G160. Light refreshments will be served on both days.
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UNAM Researcher Receives Fiber Society's Distinguished Achievement Award
Assistant Prof. Tamer Uyar of UNAM-Institute of Materials Science and Nanotechnology has received the Fiber Society's Distinguished Achievement Award for 2012. This prestigious international award, which recognized Dr. Uyar's outstanding achievement and commitment to the science, engineering and technology of fibers and fiber-based products, was presented to him during the Fiber Society's fall conference, held November 7-9 in Boston, USA. Each year, the Society selects one researcher, who is under 40 years of age and has made outstanding contributions to fiber science, for the honor. The award has been given since 1961, and Dr. Uyar is the first Turkish researcher to receive it.
At UNAM, he leads the Nanotextile Research Group, which focuses on the development of functional nanofibers, nanotextiles and nanocomposites. Dr. Uyar has received a 2010 Marie Curie International Reintegration Grant from the European Commission, the 2010 METU Prof. Dr. Mustafa Parlar Foundation Research Incentive Award and the 2009 Outstanding Young Scientist Award from FABED (the Feyzi Akkaya Science Foundation).