Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil is a Turkish-American astrophysicist, and Assistant Professor at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

. She formerly served as a National Science Foundation (NSF) and Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics (KICP) Postdoctoral Fellow at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. Her research led to a discovery of an extremely rare galaxy with a unique double-ringed elliptical structure, which is now commonly referred to as Burcin's Galaxy. She was also a 2018

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 ...

, and a 2020 TED Senior Fellow.

Education

Mutlu-Pakdil grew up in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, where she loved physics and the night sky. She attended Beşiktaş Atatürk Anatolian High School and was the first generation of her family to attend college. She completed her undergraduate studies in physics at

Bilkent University Bilkent University () is a private non-profit research university located in Ankara, Turkey. It was founded by İhsan Doğramacı, the first president of the Council of Higher Education and the head of the prominent Doğramacı family, with th ...

in 2009. She moved to

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship instit ...

for her graduate studies, gaining a master's degree in physics in 2012. In 2017 she earned her PhD in astrophysics with the dissertation ''Testing Supermassive Black Hole Scaling Relations Using Cosmological Simulations and Optical/Near-IR Imaging Data'' from University of Minnesota, Twin Cities.

Research and career

Burçins Galaxy (right) In 2017, Mutlu-Pakdil was appointed a postdoctoral research associate at

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it ...

. She worked at the

Steward Observatory Steward Observatory is the research arm of the Department of Astronomy at the University of Arizona (UArizona). Its offices are located on the UArizona campus in Tucson, Arizona (US). Established in 1916, the first telescope and building were ...

looking at the structure and dynamics of astrophysical objects, including dwarf galaxies, galactic rings and supermassive black holes. She used telescopes in Chile and Hawaii. At UA, she co-chaired the Women in Astronomy group. She was an

American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...

ambassador. During her doctoral studies, Mutlu-Pakdil discovered the galaxy PGC 1000714, which has been nicknamed "Burçin's galaxy". It is an extremely rare double ringed elliptical galaxy, and her discovery generated extensive media coverage. She worked with the

North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences (NCMNS) is a natural history museum in Raleigh, North Carolina. The museum is the oldest in the state, and the largest natural history museum in the Southeastern United States. The museum is made up o ...

to create a series of short scientific films for the general public. In January 2018, Mutlu-Pakdil was announced as a

. She gave a lecture at TED Vancouver in April, 2018. She is a campaigner for the increased representation of Muslim women in science. In 2019, Mutlu-Pakdil was announced an AAAS IF/THEN Ambassador and in 2020 she became a TED Senior Fellow. Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil is searching for the most peculiar objects in the Universe. In her own words, Mutlu-Pakdil uses "both large photometric surveys from ground-based and space telescopes in order to discover and characterize the smallest and faintest galaxies in the universe, and the role of

dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...

in their formation."

Awards and honours

* NSF Astronomy and Astrophysics Postdoctoral Fellow * KICP Fellow * 2020 TED Senior Fellow * 2019 AAAS IF/THEN Ambassador * 2018

Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World Ten Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP) program serves to formally recognize young people who excel in their chosen fields and exemplify the best attributes of the world's young people. The program is sponsored by Junior Chamber Interna ...

– Academic Leadership and Accomplishment * 2018 TED Fellow * 2017 Ten Outstanding Young Persons, Turkey – Scientific Leadership Award * 2017 APS Woman Physicist of July * 2017 Linda Larson Woman of the Year * 2016 Dr. Nancy "Rusty" Barceló Scholarship

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mutlu-Pakdil, Burcin 21st-century Turkish women scientists 21st-century American astronomers Turkish emigrants to the United States Bilkent University alumni Texas Tech University alumni Turkish astronomers University of Arizona people University of Minnesota alumni University of Minnesota Duluth alumni Women astronomers