ITU: The Scientific Destination for Young and Leading Researchers

Istanbul Technical University (ITU) will host five Turkish researchers from around the world through TÜBİTAK’s 2232-A International Fellowship for Outstanding Researchers Program and 2232-B International Fellowship for Early Stage Researchers Program.

The programs aim to encourage highly qualified researchers—distinguished by their advanced scientific and technological work and international research experience—to continue their research in Türkiye.

TÜBİTAK has announced the 2025 application results. Accordingly, five Turkish researchers from universities and institutes in the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom, Qatar, and Kuwait will carry out their projects at ITU.

International Fellowship for Outstanding Researchers Program:

Dr. Caner Akıl — University of Oxford

ITU Molecular Biology and Genetics Department 

Project: Therapeutic T Cell Receptor Engineering by Integrating AI with Structural Decoding of Immune Synapses

 

Prof. Dr. Çağatay Çatal — Qatar University

ITU Computer Engineering Department 

Project: Advancing Liquid Neural Networks for Precision Agriculture

 

Dr. Salim Ok — Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), Petroleum Research Center

ITU Chemical Engineering Department 

Project: Innovative Green Valorization of Petroleum Asphaltenes from Fundamental Insights to Functional Thin Films and Membranes

 

Dr. Erkan Gün — University of Bremen

ITU Eurasia Institute of Earth Sciences 

Project: Building a Sustainable Future with Critical Minerals through Computational Plate Tectonics Modelling

 

 International Fellowship for Early Stage Researchers Program (2232-B)

Dr. Ayyüce Begüm Bektaş — Harvard University

ITU Data Science and Analytics Department 

Project: Uncertainty-Aware Interpretable Multimodal Generative Machine Learning for Patient Future Disease Trajectories, Health System Operations, and Equity 

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Mehmet Güray Güler

 

We congratulate our researchers and academics.