What do I do? When we describe a physics problem, we often assume constant environmental conditions. But real-world environments routinely fluctuate leading to complex physical phenomena such as phase transitions of matter, and self-organized pattern formation or spatial spreading in reaction-diffusion systems. These phenomena involve features such as nonlinearity, feedback and adaptation, which also characterize living systems such as bacteria. 

Bacterial systems constitute an example for far-from equilibrium complex systems by continuously interacting with the environment, through their living matter features which include self-replication, self-regulated active mobility, and evolvability (i.e., the ability to mutate and be selected by the environment). Bacterial systems exhibit phase transition-like behavior between the states of growth and no-growth as nutrient level crosses a certain threshold. Like the reaction-diffusion systems, in response to environmental changes and through their feedback to the environment, bacteria generate self-organized patterns and exhibit spatial expansion out of an apparently uniform initial conditions. 

In nature, bacterial populations frequently encounter environmental changes such as fluctuating nutrient levels, antibiotic exposure, and mobility-impeding surface attachment. How do environmental changes and feedback shape dynamics and evolution of bacterial systems? My work revolves around answering this broad question and generally utilizes a combination of physics-based mathematical modeling, machine learning, experimental microbiology, and synthetic biology. My work offers insights to biofilm formation, range expansions, antibiotic resistance, infectious diseases, and microbial engineering, with broad implications for the dynamics and evolution of far-from-equilibrium systems. 

Currently, I am a postdoctoral research associate in Prof. Lingchong You's laboratory in the  Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Center for Quantitative Biodesign at Duke University.

What is my educational background? I earned my PhD degree in physics from Emory University in 2019 with the supervision of Prof. Minsu Kim. My PhD dissertation focused on single-cell-level characterization and mathematical modeling of origins and implications of phenotypic heterogeneity in bacterial populations under stress (such as nutrient starvation, antibiotic treatment, surface attachment). I also hold an MSc degree in physics engineering from Istanbul Technical University. My master's thesis theme was systems biology and on dynamical mathematical modeling of immune (T) cell differentiation at the thymus.