2025 Science Academy Young Scientists Awards (BAGEP) Ceremony Held at Özyeğin University

The 2025 BAGEP Award Ceremony, which aims to provide research support to young academics, was held on April 26. Özyeğin Üniversity President Prof. Barış Tan and the Science Academy President Prof. Hakan S. Orer delivered the opening speeches of the ceremony.

In his speech, our President Prof. Barış Tan expressed his pleasure to host the award ceremony and said, “as a higher education institution that understands the needs of the age and develops solutions and takes firm steps towards our mission to become an entrepreneurial research university with high global impact, we, at Özyeğin University, care about being an example for academic studies in our country and supporting these studies.”

The ceremony continued with the Academic Freedoms Report presentation and the speeches by BAGEP award-winning academics Dr. Elif Nur Fırat Karalar (Koç University), Prof. Sedat Gündoğdu (Çukurova University), and Prof Adil Sarıbay (Kadir Has University).

Following the speech of Prof. M. İrşadi Aksun, Vice President for Research, Innovation and Impact at Özyeğin University, came the introduction of newly elected Full Members of the Science Academy. Özyeğin University is represented by Prof. H. Canan Sümer, Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences and faculty member in the Psychology Department, Prof. Burcu Balçık, faculty member in the Industrial Engineering Department and Academic Director of the Sustainability Platform, and Prof. Ali İ. Tekcan, faculty member in the Psychology Department, as the newly elected Full Members.

Assistant Professor Ezgi Elçi from the Department of International Relations at Özyeğin University was among the academics receiving the 2025 BAGEP Young Scientists Awards for his contributions to the development of the field of Political Science.