SELECTED AWARDS
Research and Employment
IEEE Information Theory Society - Joy Thomas Tutorial Paper Award, named after a co-author of the most famous book on information theory (Cover & Thomas, "Elements of Information Theory") for my paper “An Overview of Information-Theoretic Security and Privacy: Metrics, Limits and Applications” (06/25).
IEEE Senior Member title which is "an honor bestowed only to those who have made significant contributions to engineering and science with professional maturity" (07/24).
Swedish Docent of Information Theory title (equivalent to a German Habilitation title) obtained by 1) attending a 4 ECTS pedagogical course that included the acceptance of the article with the title "Supervising International Ph.D. Students: Specific Challenges and Opportunities"; 2) being evaluated by an external reviewer; and 3) giving a Docent lecture on "Information Theoretic Security: From First Principles to Future-proof Algorithms" (12/23).
Entropy Feature Paper Award for the paper “Private Key and Decoder Side Information for Secure and Private Source Coding”, Switzerland (11/22).
ELLIIT Faculty Position Award by the Excellence Center at Linköping-Lund in Information Technology (ELLIIT), a strategic research environment in information technology and mobile communications, which is funded by the Swedish government, to join the Information Coding Division (ICG) of the Linköping University (LiU), Sweden (10/22 - 08/25).
IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) Transactions on Communications (TCOM) 2021 Exemplary Reviewer whose numerous excellent reviews help maintain the highest standards of IEEE TCOM (03/22).
ZEIT-Verlag & Academics Young Scientist Award (Nachwuchspreis) Runner-up Prize recipient, as one of the selected top nominees, "who has made a lasting contribution to his scientific field with outstanding and forward-looking research achievements and who also distinguishes himself through exemplary action and voluntary commitment to science" (01/22).
VDE Information Technology Society (ITG) Prestigious 2021 Johann-Philipp-Reis Award recipient with a cash prize for outstanding work on Provable Security and Privacy for Future Communication Networks, including the work on physical unclonable functions (PUFs), as "a top communication engineer under 40 whose extraordinary innovations are expected to have a significant impact on the economy and society" (10/21).
Brain City Berlin Ambassador, a scientist who inspires people to discover Berlin as a leading research hub that is diverse, interdisciplinary, cosmopolitan, and innovative (06/20 - Present).
Project Leader and Independent Research Group Leader for the BMBF Research Project on “Secure Doubly Exponential Identification via Channels” (Post-Shannon Communication) for the joint project of TU Munich and TU Berlin, Germany (06/19 - 09/22).
German Research Foundation (DFG) Joint German-Israeli Research Project Member, joint project of TU Munich, Germany and Ben Gurion University, Israel on “Information-Theoretic Security with User Cooperation” (03/19 - 05/19).
Visiting Researcher Award endowed by Huawei Moscow, Russia (11/18).
Visiting Researcher Award from the EUREKA programme Eurostars’s RESCURE project, joint project of TU Eindhoven, Netherlands and Intrinsic-ID (02/18 - 03/18).
DFG Holistic PUF (HoliPUF) Project Member, joint project of TU Munich and Fraunhofer AISEC, Germany on “Information-Theoretic Security with Physical Unclonable Functions” (04/16 - 03/19).
Selected Scholar and Grantee as one of 90 researchers for the SP Coding and Information Theory School, sponsored by the São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP), Brazil (01/15).
1st Prize in “Hands-On Project Digital Society Competition” with the topic “Profit Optimization Through Enterprise Collaboration Using Digital Media”, funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation & Goethe Institute & German Centre for International Migration and Development (CIM) & Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) to attend the BITKOM Trendkongress, Berlin, Germany (07/14).
Qualcomm Innovation Fellowship Finalist with a Novel ICT Security-Primitive Design (04/14).
Education
TU Munich (TUM) Chair of Communications Engineering (LNT) Doctoral Student who finished the Dissertation the Fastest (11/18).
Research Fund for Doctoral Studies on “Information-Theoretic Privacy and Security” via Alexander von Humboldt Professorship (02/14 - 03/16).
TUM Academic Award with cash prize as a Top Grade holder in the Master of Science in Communication Engineering (MSCE) Graduate Program (10/13).
German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) & Turkish Education Foundation (TEV) Shared Graduate Scholarship holder for Master’s degree studies at TUM (10/11 - 10/13).
Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBITAK) Graduate Scholarship offer for Master’s degree studies (offered in 06/11).
Bilkent University Academic Award for Outstanding Bachelor's Degree Grades (06/11).
Bilkent University Dean's High Honors List (2007 - 2011).
TEV Prestigious Outstanding Success and Leadership Scholarship as one of 50 students selected out of top 2000 students in Turkey who acquired leadership skills (09/08 - 06/11).
Bilkent University a Top Grade holder in the English Preparatory School Language Exam (06/07).
Turkish Prime Ministry Supreme Success Fellowship (09/06 - 06/11).
Aegean Modern Education Foundation (EÇEV) Outstanding Success Scholarship (09/06 - 06/11).
Bilkent University Outstanding Success Scholarship (09/06 - 06/11).
Golden Youth Award endowed by the IsBank (09/06).
Ranked 51st out of 1,510,411 attendees and ranked 1st in Halil Kale Natural Sciences High School (Gymnasium) in the Turkish National University Entrance Exam (ÖSS 2006).