The first ever Science Diplomacy Award from the Council of Higher Education (YÖK) was presented to Assoc. Prof. Sedat Nizamoğlu from the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. The award, given to outstanding scientists who are recognized with prestigious national/international awards and receive and successfully execute large-scale international grants.

The ERC-granted NOVELNOBI project run by Sedat Nizamoğlu between 2015-2021 meets the criteria of YÖK in this category: “to carry national success to the international arena, to be rewarded by international organizations and to represent Türkiye in the international arena with a strong scientific identity”. In addition to the NOVELNOBİ project, Prof. Nizamoğlu’s other significant achievements, such as being the supervisor of the recipient of the YÖK Doctoral Thesis of the Year Award, the support of the TÜBİTAK National Leading Researchers Program, his second ERC fund as the first senior researcher from Turkey to receive this support for the second time, the funding from the Marie Curie European Innovative Training Networks and 25 + articles published in the most prestigious journals in their fields, helped contribute to his selection for this year’s award.