Bilge Demirköz (born 1980) is a Turkish professor of high energy physics at

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish language, Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a prestigious public university, public Institute of technology, technical university located in Ankara, ...

. She coordinates the ''Particle Radiation Tests Creation Laboratory'', the first collaboration between Turkey and

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

, the European Organization for Nuclear Research.

Education and career

Demirköz is from Istanbul. She attended

Robert College The American Robert College of Istanbul ( or ), often abbreviated as Robert or RC, is a Selective school, highly selective, Independent school, independent, mixed-sex education, co-educational, Education in Turkey#Private schools, private Second ...

for her high school studies. She wanted to take part in research during her undergraduate degree, so moved to

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

. She won Joel Matthew Orloff Award in 2001. She earned a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in Physics and Music from

in 2001. She started working on the

Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) is a particle physics experiment module that is mounted on the International Space Station (ISS).Kristine Rainey (April 2, 2013)Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS): How It Works NASA. Retrieved June 2, 20 ...

. She was offered PhD positions in

California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

and

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

. Despite originally starting her PhD at MIT, the

Space Shuttle Challenger disaster On January 28, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger, Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' broke apart 73 seconds into its flight, killing all seven crew members aboard. The spacecraft disintegrated above the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Cape Can ...

resulted in her moving to the

University of Oxford The University of Oxford is a collegiate university, collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the List of oldest un ...

. She was a

Science and Technology Facilities Council The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) is a United Kingdom government agency that carries out research in science and engineering, and funds UK research in areas including particle physics, nuclear physics, space science and astr ...

Dorothy Hodgkin Scholar under the supervision of Antony Weidberg. She completed her postgraduate studies at the

in 2007, and was a member of

Balliol College Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and ar ...

. Her thesis was titled ''Construction and Performance of the ATLAS SCT Barrels and Cosmic Tests''. From 2007 to 2009 Demirköz was a postdoctoral fellow at

where she worked as a Trigger Expert for the

ATLAS experiment ATLAS is the largest general-purpose particle detector experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Switzerland. The experiment is designed to take advantage of ...

. In 2009, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. from 2009 until 2011, she was a postdoctoral fellow at CERN and the Institute for High Energy Physics (Institut de Fisica d'Altes Energies ( IFAE). She was promoted to Professor at

in 2017. She serves as the Principal Investigator of the astroparticle physics group.

Research

Demirköz is an astro-particle physicist who is known for her research on space radiation and particles that travel close to the speed of light. Her research includes work on the jet shapes of 900 GeV and 7 TeV data from the

, testing detectors using cosmic rays, and participating in the

experiment on the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...

. She founded the Engin Arik Fellowship in 2008, a fund which supports Turkish students at

. She leads the ''Particle Radiation Tests Creation Laboratory'', the first collaboration between Turkey and

. This allows her to study the radiation environment of the earth as well as monitoring the impact of radiation on electronic devices. In 2021, Demirköz led the team that developed a radiation meter that is the first scientific payload to go to from Turkey to space.

Selected publications

* *

Awards and honors

She was selected as a

TED fellow TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

in 2011. She was appointed to the

User Advisory Committee in 2011. Demirköz has served on the Board of the Arts at

. Demirköz was elected to the

Turkish Academy of Sciences The Turkish Academy of Sciences ( – TÜBA) is an autonomous scholarly association aimed at promoting scientific activities in Turkey. Although it is attached to the office of the Presidency and is largely funded by the government, it maintains f ...

in 2012. In 2015 she spoke at the Turkish Women's Network. She was named a L'Oréal-UNESCO International Rising Talent in 2017. In 2017, she received a

British Council The British Council is a British organisation specialising in international cultural and educational opportunities. It works in over 100 countries: promoting a wider knowledge of the United Kingdom and the English language (and the Welsh lang ...

professional achievement alumni award, and was nominated to the

Global Young Academy The Global Young Academy (GYA) is an international society of young scientists, aiming to give a voice to young scientists across the globe.... Membership strength is capped at 200, and the membership tenure is 5 years. Organization and member ...

. She was featured in the 2018

Science Magazine ''Science'' is the peer-reviewed academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and one of the world's top academic journals. It was first published in 1880, is currently circulated weekly and has a subscrib ...

celebration of women in science, and was elected to the

Young Global Leaders Forum of Young Global Leaders, or Young Global Leaders (YGL), is a non-profit organization. The organization was created by Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum and is managed from Geneva, Switzerland, under the supervision of the Sw ...

forum in 2019.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Demirkoz, Bilge Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni Alumni of the University of Oxford Academics of the University of Cambridge Academic staff of Middle East Technical University Turkish nuclear physicists Particle physicists Turkish physicists 1980 births Living people People associated with CERN