Achievements

Psychology

Selin Ersoy

İzmir’den kilometrelerce uzakta, Kalahari Çölü’nün sevimli ev sahipleri olan Mirketler, İzmir Ekonomi Üniversitesi (İEÜ) Psikoloji Bölümü Mezunu Selin Ersoy tarafından inceleniyor. Güney Afrika’daki Kalahari Çölü’nün Kuruman Nehri yatağında kurulu araştırma istasyonunda görev alan ilk ve tek Türk Bilim Kadını olarak görev yapan Ersoy, her gün sabah 05.30’da araştırma ekipmanlarını alarak, üzerinde çalışacağı mirketleri arıyor. İEÜ Psikoloji Bölümü’nde aldığı eğitimi boyunca hayvan davranışlarını incelemeye hayal ettiğini belirten Ersoy, Kalahari Çölü’nde 20 kilometrelik araştırma alanında mirketlerin biyolojik ve davranışsal ölçümlerini yaptığını söyledi.

Ersoy, mirketler üzerine çalışmasının Erasmus değişim programıyla İngiltere’ye gitmesiyle başladığını belirterek, “İngiltere’de Cambridge Üniversitesi’nde bir davranışsal ekolog ve evrimsel biyolog olan Profesör Tim Clutton-Brock ile tanıştım. Dr. Clutton-Brock, 1993 yılında mirketlerde (Suricata suricata) üreme sistemlerine ve sosyal davranışa ilişkin ekolojik ve evrimsel belirleyicileri çalışmak üzere Güney Afrika Cumhuriyeti’nde Kalahari Çölü’nde bir araştırma istasyonu kurmuş. İstasyonda başta İngiliz ve Amerikalı bilim insanları olmak üzere, çeşitli ülkelerden araştırmacılar bulunuyor. Araştırma grubuna katılmak için yazdığım proje kabul edilince 2013 yılındaki mezuniyetimin ardından Kalahari’nde istasyonda görev almaya başladım” dedi.

Türkiye’den İlk ve Tek Araştırmacı

Ersoy, mirketlere özgü “nöbet/gözcülük” davranışı, “kolektif yavru bakımı”, “üremenin dominant erkek ve dişilerin bir ayrıcalığı olması” gibi konular üzerinde çalıştığını ifade etti. Mirketlerin kişilik faktörlerinin üreme ve savunma davranışlarıyla ilintisini araştırdığını anlatan Ersoy, Kalahari’deki araştırma merkezinde yaklaşık olarak yirmi yıldır bilimsel çalışmalar yürütüldüğünü, daha önce Türkiye’den herhangi bir araştırmacının orada yer almadığına dikkat çekti.  Ersoy, merkezde zamanının dolu dolu geçtiğine de değinerek, şunları kaydetti:

 “Araştırma istasyonuna en yakın yerleşim 6 saatlik bir sürüş mesafesinde. İstasyonda 25-30 kişiyiz. Benim için gün sabah vardiyasıyla başlıyor, 5.30 gibi araziye çıkıyorum. Şu anda işim uzun zamandır alıştırma eğitimi verdiğim ve yaklaşık olarak 20 kilometrekarelik bir alana yayılmış bulunan, mirket gruplarını tek tek bulmak. Beni gördükleri zaman etrafımı sarıyorlar. Bu kendimi en güvende hissettiğim zamanları oluşturuyor. Onlar çevremdeyken akrep, yılan gibi tehlikelerden bir anlamda korunuyorum. Mirketler bu hayvanlar üzerinden besleniyorlar.”

Dolu Dolu Geçen Bir Çöl Hayatı

Mirketlerin sabah ağırlıklarını ölçtüğünü, dişilerin üretkenlik durumlarını kontrol ettiğini, akşam vardiyasında da davranışsal gözlemler yaptığını anlatan Ersoy, çalışmaların bitmesiyle araştırmacıların kamyonetin farının aydınlattığı tozlu alanda futbol oynayarak vakit geçirdiğini söyledi. Ersoy, buradaki araştırmasını bir yıl içerisinde tamamlayacağını ardından yine benzer çalışmaları sürdürmek istediğini bildirdi.

Cesur Bilim İnsanına Anlamlı Destek

Ersoy, çevresinin desteğini ise “Kalahari Çölü’ndeki bu araştırmada ilk Türk bilim insanı olmamın heyecanı, Cambridge gibi dünyanın önde gelen bir üniversitesinde doktora şansı elde etmiş olmamın gururuyla birleşince ailem bu fikre daha kolay ısındı. Arkadaşlarım ve İzmir Ekonomi Üniversitesi Psikoloji Bölümü akademisyenleri, beni bu konuda hep desteklediler. Özellikle Bölüm Başkanımız Prof. Dr. Hakan Çetinkaya’dan hem ihtiyaç duyduğum akademik-bilimsel, hem de insani desteği aldım. Kısacası çevremdeki herkes benim bu heyecanıma ortak oldular” diyerek anlattı.

English Translatiton and Interpreting

Barış Sadıç

I started studying at the Department of English Translation and Interpreting at Izmir University of Economics in 2015. Seeing the opportunities provided by my school to develop my competences in different areas, I took courses from different faculties and departments. Meanwhile, I also laid the foundation of my command over the French language, which I now speak fluently. Getting familiar with disciplines other than my major have had a profound impact over my way of thinking as well as my plans for the future. Following my internship at the Directorate of International Relations of Izmir Chamber of Commerce at the end of my junior year, I decided that I wanted to learn more about the European Union and started participating in the EU Studies Certificate Programme offered by the Department of Political Science and International Relations. Owing to the theoretical framework and analytical thinking skills provided by both this programme and my department, I ranked first among Turkish translation and interpretation students in the 9th Young Translators Contest organised by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs Directorate for EU Affairs. Furthermore, I was among the 13 Turkish students that were awarded a full scholarship by the same directorate to pursue a master’s degree at the prestigious College of Europe in Belgium. I successfully completed this programme. Apart from my determination, the most vital factors in my success were the strong academic background, connections, and professional competency offered by Izmir University of Economics.

Sociology

Uğur Berk KALELİOĞLU

After I graduated from department of sociology as a ‘high honour student’, I received full scholarship from the German Federal Republic. The curriculum in IUE which combines theory and practice played a great role in my education abroad. I studied social and cultural science for 6 months at The University of Fulda, Germany as part of Erasmus Program. The sociology education I received in IUE thanks to our prominent academic staff and rich library sources helped me to get my master degree from the University of Siegen department of political sciences and sociology. Second foreign language classes at IUE facilitate my access to the primary sources in Germany. Upon my German supervisor’s advice, I published my thesis into a book. Recently, I am in Germany form y doctorate education. I wrote 3 sociology books and my articles were published in number of international journals. I continue my academic researches owing to the passion for science I developed at İzmir University of Economics. I would recommend my young fellows İzmir University of Economics as a well-established education institution. 

Mathematic

Murat Yaşar

I’m Murat.  The first time I evaluated İzmir University of Economics and I want to share with you all the cornerstones in my 4 years after graduation.

Actually, I never thought of studying Mathematics even after taking the university entrance exam. It all started one day when my mother wanted to introduce me to a professor and she had been cleaning their house for years. After the exam, before the preference period, one summer day, we went to prof.dr.Murat Adıvar and his wife Burcu Adıvar's house in Narlıdere with my mother. I met with prof.dr.Murat Adıvar for the first day  on that day.  While I had only civil engineering faculties in mind, prof.dr.Murat Adıvar informed me in detail about Izmir University of Economics and especially the Department of Mathematics. He even jumped into his car and walked around the university, talking about how global the education program is in the department of mathematics. Perhaps most importantly, he had long explained that mathematics is a 'golden bracelet'. I was very impressed to hear that mathematics added a fascinating vision in a milestone decision in which many young people like me discovered their passion in their country, and that they were not sure exactly what their dream job was. When I returned home that day, I had placed the Izmir University of Economics Department of Mathematics (Full Scholarship) on the first place. I also placed Civil Engineering faculties in other places, of course;  leave the decision to life for a little.

When the results were announced, my first choice was positive. My family were the happiest because of the scholarship and because I am going to a university in a central location in Izmir. In the first year, I didn’t know English very well. In the preparatory class, I took all the prizes and first places. I learned English from high quality teachers that is one of my golden bracelet’s in my career. In other years of the university, my horizons widened day by day with courses from a wide range of branches in the department of mathematics and as prof.dr.Murat  advised us in his lessons, I had won the notion of 'mathematical thinking' that would affect my thoughts and decisions throughout my life.

In the last years of the university, the vision that added to me by these various branches became my passion and and I started to attend the courses in computer and software engineering departments by asking permission to the academicians.
I started to think that software will have a very important place in the world of today and tomorrow. Even in my projects in the department of mathematics, I was doing my projects by blending them with software and mobile applications. At this point, I would like to mention the contributions of one of my favorite academics prof. dr. Gözde Yazgı Tütüncü. By blending our wishes with those who are within our responsibility, leading our wide vision, she has always provided us to create projects full of motivation and inspiration.

My interest in the software increased exponentially when I graduated and my first job immediately at that year was to establish a joint software company with my friends that the university brought to me. We established our company in Bilimpark in Izmir University of Economics. Establishing our company in a technopark has given us serious advantages as a new company. We tried to grow  our established company for two years. But when the conditions do not result in improvements as we want and we thought we had to gain some sectoral experience so we closed our company and I moved to Istanbul. I'm developing products and software for top 10 software company in Turkey for 2 years. Soon,
when  I have enough sectoral experience, I want to establish a company again with my entrepreneurial identity that I  realize in my university years and  I have a goal to make this company a company that exports millions of dollars every year.

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