
Welcome to my website.
PREVIOUS POSITIONS
2014 – 2022
Tenured Assistant Professor in polymer composites, University of Twente, Netherlands.
2016 – 2016
Visiting Assistant Professor, KU Leuven, Belgium.
2013 – 2014
Visiting Researcher, University of Twente, Netherlands.
2011 – 2014
PhD researcher, Technical University of Denmark, Denmark.
EDUCATION:
2011 – 2014
PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Denmark
Ph.D. Thesis: Modelling the pultrusion process of off shore wind turbine blades (link)
2008 – 2011
MSc in Mechanical Engineering, Middle East Technical University (METU), Turkey
M.Sc. Thesis: Optimization of vibration characteristics of a radar antenna structure (link)
RESEARCH:
My research focuses on the characterization and manufacturing of fiber-reinforced polymer composites and their mechanical performance. I help our society to have a more sustainable world of the future using lightweight and high-performance composite materials. The performance and properties of a composite part are highly dependent on the processing history, resulting microstructure and process-induced defects.

In order to have professionalism in composite manufacturing, we need to:
- Understand the material behaviour, microstructure and governing physical phenomena
- Describe mathematical expressions for material behaviour during processing
- Translate them to numerical process simulations and predict the physical phenomena taking place
- Finally optimize and control the manufacturing process for improved and well-controlled product quality.
This approach inherently requires an integral approach from nano to a macro scale which is a very challenging task. My research therefore includes:
- Development of instrumented processing equipment and dedicated experimental setups
- Characterization of phase changes (soft-to-hard matter transitions)
- Analysis of microstructure after the manufacturing process
- Identifying mechanical property and performance
- Development of numerical models and computational tools for materials processing and mechanical response