Serdar Ay, a 2018 PhD graduate of the Department of Mathematics, is one of three recipients of this year’s Serhat Özyar Young Scientist of the Year award. Dr. Ay’s selection for the honor was based on his PhD thesis, titled “Dilations of Doubly Invariant Kernels Valued in Topologically Ordered *-Spaces” and supervised by Prof. Aurelian Gheondea. 
The award is presented annually by the Middle East Technical University (METU) Associates Union and the journal Bilim ve Ütopya to the authors of what are judged to be the best engineering and science PhD theses produced in Turkey. It honors the memory of Dr. Serhat Özyar, a promising scientist who died in 2002 at a young age.
This year, theses by 30 nominees working in various fields were considered by expert referees and, subsequently, a selection committee, with three awardees as well as three honorable mentions being chosen. During the award ceremony, which took place at METU on April 24, the recipients made short presentations about their work in a way that was comprehensible to a general audience.