Neuroscience Shined at the 16th Annual Kadir Has Awards

On March 22, 2021, Kadir Has University (KHAS) held its 16th annual Kadir Has Awards ceremony this year online. Marking fourteen years since the passing of Mr. Kadir Has, the university’s founder, philanthropist, and business person, the event promotes and honors outstanding people and institutions who not only have achieved great things in Turkey and abroad, but have also contributed to society. Among those to receive the Outstanding Achievement Award and Promising Scientist Award this year were Turkish scientists who – with immense patience and relying on ever-evolving gene technology – have made several notable breakthroughs in the field of Neuroscience.

OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

This year’s Outstanding Achievement Award went to Prof. Dr. Murat Günel, the Chair of the Neurosurgery Department at Yale University School of Medicine. Prof. Dr. Günel was awarded for his research to reveal the genetic basis of disorders in the nervous system and vascular system, discovering the genetic mechanisms that cause brain cancers to turn from benign tumors to cancer by reading genetic codes, and for including Turkish Post-Doc researchers alongside Ph.D., MSc, and undergraduate students on his team and training them. Dr. Günel’s research interests focus on gene discovery in disorders of the nervous system and its vasculature. He also is interested in reading DNA maps to identify the mutational landscape of brain tumors.

PROMISING SCIENTIST AWARD

This year’s Promising Scientist Award went to Dr. Piray Atsak, the assistant professor of Neurology at Columbia University for contributions to understanding how adverse early life experiences create lasting risk for psychiatric disorders using a combination of animal models affective disorders, in vivo electrophysiological recordings, and optogenetic manipulations of neural circuits involved in stress and emotional behavior.

PROF. DR GÜNEL’S SPECIALTY IS NEUROLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND DISEASES

Elected to the National Academy of Medicine (USA) in 2015, Prof. Dr. Murat Günel is the holder of numerous prestigious honors, including the Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award (Turkish Ministry of Health) and the Young Investigator Award (American Epilepsy Society). In 2020, TÜBA (The Turkish Academy of Sciences) gave him the International Academy Prize (Health and Life Sciences Category) for his work on identifying recessive forms of and understanding the mechanisms behind malformations that lead both to cortical development and neurovascular disorders.

Prof. Günel is [still] the Nixdorff-German Professor of Neurosurgery and Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Yale University School of Medicine. He specializes in brain development and diseases, namely focusing on the molecular genetics and biology of hemorrhagic stroke, brain aneurysms, and tumors, and on developing new ways to treat them.

DR. ATSAK LOOKS AT THE NEUROPHYSIOLOGIC MECHANISMS BEHIND EARLY LIFE STRESS

Having graduated from Ege University in 2005, Dr. Piray Atsak completed her Ph.D. in Neuroscience at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands in 2012. During her graduate work, she discovered a new mechanism that shows how stress can damage memory. She then continued her postdoctoral training at Radboud University; focusing on what that same neurobiological stress mechanism does to other aspects of cognition. In 2015, Neurofederatie (the Dutch Neurofederation) presented Dr. Atsak with a VENI grant. That same year, both the Dutch Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) as well as the Hope for Depression Research Foundation awarded her additional grants, which she used to continue her research in neuroscience at Columbia University (where she still works). Supported by the Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychology and the National Institute of Mental Health since 2019, Dr. Atsak investigates the neurophysiological mechanisms that trigger early life depression.

Mr. Can Has (Chairman of the KHAS Board of Trustees), Mr. Nuri Has (President of the Kadir Has Foundation), and Prof. Dr. Sondan Durukanoğlu Feyiz (President of KHAS) all spoke at the online award ceremony where Dr. Günel and Dr. Atsak were honored.  

“OUR SUCCESS GIVES US THE COURAGE TO MARCH FORWARD”

Upon congratulating the two neuroscientists on their achievements, Mr. Can Has, Chairman of the KHAS Board of Trustees, noted this past year has reminded all of just how important unity, family, societal solidarity, support, and -above all- life are. Has added that KHAS’s careful transition into its New Education Model was going as planned despite pandemic-related regulations, “We hope to turn back the clock, and return to our bustling campus, restriction-free.” Confirming that KHAS was well on its way to becoming a strong research university, he went on to say the following:

“KHAS’s New Education Model aims to groom alumni of free-thinking individuals who possess universal human values, who are highly employable around the world, and who will shape and lead the future. Likewise, it offers us the opportunity to set new goals that are in line with the modern world. Moreover, we have our minds and hearts set on becoming a strong research university. All of our academics are involved in projects that require extensive funding, both national and international alike. To date, their work has ushered close to 100 million Turkish Lira into our institution. Yes, the pandemic has been difficult on all of us; however, we wouldn’t have made it this far, this fast, had we not worked in unison. Our success, in turn, has given us the courage to push ourselves to foster our university’s research culture as well as develop its physical research infrastructure.”

“WE’RE BUILDING BRIDGES BETWEEN SUCCESSFUL SCIENTISTS”

Mr. Nuri Has, President of the Kadir Has Foundation, expressed how delighted the university – which has proudly carried both Kadir Has’s name and philosophy towards science and education for close to 25 years – is to support science and art communities via the Kadir Has Awards. During his talk, he brought up how the pandemic has radically changed the ebb and flow of life, and how scientists, research centers, and universities alike have made it possible for all of us to [finally] see the light at the end of the tunnel.

“Science stands before one of humanity’s greatest threats. It has become our place of refuge. Only scientific research can help up us build a wall against this outbreak, which not only has halted life as we know in its tracks, but also has unleashed a tsunami of human, economic, and political problems. We’ve witnessed once again how scientific thought and discovery alone, how interdisciplinary collaboration and coordination harbor the keys to solving these most real and pressing of dilemmas. If we want life and humanity to go on, our only hope is to look to science.”

At the Awards, Nuri Has continued, “To date, the Kadir Has Awards have been given to those who’ve either made pivotal discoveries or left behind important projects in their wake and who we believe will achieve many more great things to come, with the right amount of encouragement and support. Our goal is to build bridges between scientists by creating an opportunity-filled research environment for them.”

“WE’RE SHAPING TOMORROW NOW”

Prof. Dr. Sondan Durukanoğlu Feyiz, President of KHAS, talked about how the university is taking steps today to shape tomorrow by enriching education and science:

“Before I speak at any commemorative ceremony, I always re-read our founder Mr. Kadir Has’s letter addressed to future Board of Trustees members and chancellors. In this letter, he says two things: ‘Today is the only means with which we can buy tomorrow,’ and ‘Yesterday has already happened, but tomorrow has yet to come.’ I’ve turned that wisdom into my compass.” During her talk, she emphasized the Core Program and Project-Based Education as being critical pillars of KHAS’s New Education Model, adding, “We’ve invented and successfully implemented a revolutionary new system that does away traditional education models so that we can prime tomorrow’s generation.”

Prof. Dr. Durukanoğlu Feyiz also mentioned the brave steps that KHAS has taken education-wise to elevate its research ecosystem up to a desirable level: “We’ve quickly become one of just a handful of Turkish universities to successfully receive EU research funding. Plus, we also rank third in terms of TUBİTAK funding for social sciences and humanities projects over the past four years.” She closed her talk off by saying that KHAS is well on its way to emerging as a world-class university. Before she congratulated this year’s esteemed award winners, she reminded everyone about just how important projects/research that pioneer both the mind and science are.

16TH ANNUAL KADİR HAS AWARDS JURY (*)

•    Prof. Dr. Nihat Berker, Kadir Has University
•    Dr. Canan Dağdeviren, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab
•    Prof. Dr. Turgay Dalkara, Hacettepe University
•    Prof. Dr. Sondan Durukanoğlu Feyiz, Kadir Has University
•    Prof. Dr. Gökhan Hotamışlıgil, Harvard University
•    Prof. Dr. Türker Kılıç, BAU Medical Park Göztepe Hospital

(*) This list has been arranged alphabetically by the last name.

You can also view the full list of award winners from previous years at the link below: http://odul.khas.edu.tr/odultarihcesi