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I am an interdisciplinary social scientist at the Department of Science and Technology Policy Studies at METU. I have spent a lot of time at METU - first as Marie Curie FP7 Cofund Fellow and later as the Coordinator for Education for METU Design Factory. I am still involved with METU DF.

My research focuses on interdisciplinary collaborative science but I am broadly interested in topics as diverse as virtual teams, research data management, astrobiology, origins of life, complex adaptive systems theory, evaluation, qualitative research, design thinking, science and technology studies, and science communication. I like exploratory work and enjoy bringing expertise from different domains together.

I am involved with Blue Marble Space Institute of Science and ELSI Origins Network -both networks do very cool stuff in astrobiology and origins of life research! I get to know these amazing people during my NASA Postdoctoral Program Fellowship while studying the NASA Astrobiology Institute's (NAI) collaborative practices. They accepted a social scientist (me) with open arms. At NASA, I assessed the current collaborative practices regarding (i) communication behaviors; (ii) data and information behaviors; (iii) collaborative work and interdisciplinary interaction; and (iv) institutional identity. My research (I hope) helped to improve communication, data sharing, collaborative analysis, and problem solving; to foster interdisciplinary science and collaborative work; and to strengthen institutional identity.

After my postdoc at NASA, I returned to Turkey with a Tubitak-Marie Curie Cofund grant and spend two years as a Visiting Scholar at the Research Center for Science and Technology Policies. I conducted a multilevel assessment (behavioral, policy, and technological) of Turkish environmental scientists’ research data management practices (store, share, reuse) and developed a roadmap for Turkey.

As for my training, I received my Ph.D. from the College of Communication and Information, at the University of Tennessee in 2011 which prepared me to explore my diverse interests. In my dissertation, "Emergence of a multi-institutional and multidisciplinary scientific collaboration: DataONE Case Study", I investigated the emergence of DataONE (a multidisciplinary, multi-institutional, and multinational virtual data network on Earth Sciences) and the role of information and communication behaviors in it from a complexity theory perspective. My dissertation won the 2012 Outstanding Dissertation Award given by the College. Afterwards, I spend a semester as a Visiting Scholar at the University of South Carolina's School of Library and Information Science. Also, I have master's degree in Public Relations from Gazi University and a bachelor's degree in Economics from Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey.

Previously, I had worked at the World Bank Turkey Office as Public Information Assistant for 4.5 years where I was responsible for the World Bank Public Information Center, publications, and country website. I also worked in the coordination of youth and NGO projects that were funded by the Bank; however, that feels like another life.