About

Bachelor’s Degree: METU – Metallurgical Engineering, 1987
Ph.D.: Newcastle University, 1992

Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal was born in 1965 in Eskişehir, Türkiye. He completed his primary, secondary, and high school education in Eskişehir. In 1987, he graduated with honors from the Department of Metallurgical Engineering at Middle East Technical University (METU). He continued his academic education with a TÜBİTAK scholarship at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom, where he received his Ph.D. in Ceramic Materials in 1992.

For his postdoctoral research, he worked again at Newcastle University between 1992 and 1994, and later at Karlsruhe University in Germany between 1997 and 1998 with an Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Fellowship. He began his academic career in 1994 as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Ceramic Engineering at Anadolu University, where he became an Associate Professor in 1996 and a Full Professor in 2001.

Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal has authored over 150 publications, 70 of which have been published in journals indexed by SCI, with over 2,000 citations to his work. He has an h-index of 26 and holds 6 international patents. He has received numerous national and international awards, including the TÜBİTAK Science Award. He is a member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA), the World Academy of Ceramics (WAC), and the Academia Europaea. In 2023, he was ranked in the top 2% of the world's most influential scientists in a list prepared by Stanford University and Elsevier.

His previous administrative roles include:

• Chair of the Global Engineering Deans Council
• First Vice President of the International Federation of Engineering Education Societies
• President of the European Ceramic Society
• Vice Rector of Anadolu University and Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture
• Secretary-General of the Council of Turkish Engineering Deans
• Board Member of ATAP and GOSB Technoparks
• Board Member of Inovent Inc. and BOREN
• Executive Board Member at TÜBİTAK in the Technology Transfer Mechanisms Support Group (TEMEG) and the Engineering Research Group (MAG)

From 2011 to 2015, he served at Sabancı University as Director of Research and Graduate Policies, and from 2012 to 2015, as Vice Rector. On March 25, 2015, he was appointed as a Member of the Council of Higher Education (YÖK), and on April 1, 2015, he became a Member of its Executive Board. On July 21, 2016, he was elected as Vice President of YÖK, serving until January 12, 2018.

Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal served as the President of TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye) from February 22, 2018, to August 16, 2024. During this time, he also held the position of Chairman of the Board at TÜBİTAK MARTEK Technopark Inc.

He was appointed as a Member of the Presidential Council for Science, Technology and Innovation Policies on October 8, 2018, and as Deputy Chair on November 1, 2018. He was reappointed to the Council on April 10, 2025, and to the Deputy Chair position on April 16, 2025. He was re-elected as a YÖK Member again on April 27, 2019, and August 1, 2023.

Since January 1, 2020, he has been serving as a Council Member of the United Nations Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries (UNTB), and as of January 2024, he holds the position of Council President. Additionally, since January 1, 2023, he has been the Chair of the Board of the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organizations (WAITRO). He also currently serves as the Chair of the Technical Universities Association of Türkiye.

As of the decision published in the Official Gazette dated August 16, 2024, he has been appointed as the Rector of Istanbul Technical University (ITU), a position he continues to hold.

Bachelor: Bilkent University - Electrical and Electronics Engineering; 1996
Master’s: Bilkent University - Electrical and Electronics Engineering; 1999
Doctorate: Bilkent University - Electrical and Electronics Engineering; 2004

Prof. Dr. Lütfiye Durak Ata completed her undergraduate, graduate, and doctorate degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Bilkent University in 1996, 1999, and 2004. She continued her post-doctoral studies at the Statistical Signal Processing Laboratory of the Korean Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) between 2004-2005. She worked as a faculty member in the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering at Yıldız Technical University between 2005 and 2015. Prof. Dr. Durak Ata worked at the University of Pittsburgh, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an invited researcher in 2008. She started working at the Informatics Institute of ITU in 2015. After being Erasmus coordinator and research projects coordinator, she worked as the Deputy Director of the Institute between 2016-2018 and as the Director of the Institute since 2018. .
Prof. Dr. Lütfiye Durak Ata has undertaken the executive role of many research and development projects for telecommunication and defense industry applications funded by various public and private sector organizations, including TÜBİTAK and the Defense Industry Presidency. She continues her work in the fields of communication and digital signal processing.
Prof. Dr. Lütfiye Durak acts as vice rector responsible for international relations of our university.

• International Student Coordinatorship
• International Strategies Coordinatorship
• International Relations Commission
• International Rankings Commission

Bachelor: Anadolu University – Materials Science and Engineering; 2003
Master’s: Istanbul Technical University – Metallurgical and Materials Engineering; 2005
Doctorate: Istanbul Technical University – Metallurgical and Materials Engineering; 2010

Prof. Dr. İpek Akın Karadayı was born in 1979 in Eskişehir. She completed her undergraduate degree in Materials Science and Engineering from Anadolu University in 2003. She subsequently completed her graduate (2005) and doctorate (2010) degrees in Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at Istanbul Technical University (ITU). During her doctoral research, she joined a research group as a visiting PhD student at Tohoku University, Materials Research Institute. Further enhancing her expertise, she pursued postdoctoral studies at the Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Sheffield.
In 2004, she started to work as a research assistant in the Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering at Istanbul Technical University, where she was appointed as assistant professor in 2012, associate professor in 2017 and full professor in 2024.
Prof. Dr. İpek Akın Karadayı has actively contributed to the university by serving as a coordinator and member of various commissions. Her research primarily focuses on boride- and carbide-based ultra-high temperature ceramics with significant potential for aerospace applications, and bioceramics. She has been a principal investigator in research projects funded by national organizations including TUBITAK and TENMAK BOREN.

Bachelor: ITU Aeronautical Engineering, 1989
Master’s: ITU Aeronautical Engineering, 1993
Doctorate: ITU Civil Engineering; 1999

Prof. Dr. Şenol ATAOĞLU completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Istanbul Technical University. Between 1999 and 2001, he did postdoctoral studies in the Department of Ocean Engineering at Florida Atlantic University.
In 1993, he started working as a Research Assistant in the Department of Civil Engineering at ITU, and in 2005, he became an Assistant Professor Doctor. He received the titles of Associate Professor in 2011 and Professor in 2017. He works as a Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering at ITU.
He served as Vice Dean of the ITU Faculty of Civil Engineering, Member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Disaster Management, Vice Head of the Department of Civil Engineering, Structural Engineering Program Coordinator, Civil Engineering Program Coordinator at the University of Djibouti, and Director of Construction and Technical Affairs of ITU TRNC. He has given lectures at Gedik, Işık, Istanbul Ticaret, and Djibouti Universities.
Continued his studies in Experimental Mechanics, Mechanical Tests, Elastodynamics, Photothermoelasticity, Viscoelasticity, Pipe-Soil Interaction, Plastic Pipes, Boundary Element Method, Micromechanics. Prof. Dr. Şenol ATAOĞLU has been a researcher or principal investigator in the Ministry of Environment, Urbanization and Climate Change, TÜBİTAK, ISKI, and various private sector research/development. He has a patent, 41 national and international research articles, 47 proceedings papers, and 9 graduate thesis as a supervisor.

Bachelor: Civil Engineering, Yıldız Technical University; 2012
Integrated PhD:Civil Engineering, Istanbul Technical University; 2021

Assistant Proffessor Ümit Karadoğan graduated as the top student of his class from the Civil Engineering Department of Yıldız Technical University in 2012. He completed his integrated PhD in the Civil Engineering Department, Institute of Graduate Studies, Istanbul Technical University in 2021.
Between 2014 and 2021, he worked as a Research Assistant and Lecturer at the Civil Engineering Department of Istanbul Technical University. Since 2021, he has been working as an Assistant Professor in the same department.
Karadoğan conducts research in the fields of Soil Mechanics, Foundation Engineering, Earthquake Engineering, Environmental Geotechnics, Dredged Materials and the Dewatering of Mine Wastes, and the Utilization of Dredged Materials in Geotechnical Engineering. He has published six national and international journal articles and six conference papers.
He has held administrative roles such as Rector’s Advisor and Deputy Secretary General. Currently, Karadoğan serves as the Dormitory Scholarship Coordinator and Secretary General at Istanbul Technical University.