People • Faculty Members

Sabancı University President Prof. Dr. Nihat Berker received his double BS degrees (1971) in Physics and Chemistry from MIT, his MS (1972) and PhD (1977) degrees from the University of Illinois. He conducted postdoctoral research at Harvard University (1977-79). He was a FacultyMember at MIT for twenty years (1979-1999). He was an MIT Professor in 1988-2004 and has been an MIT Emeritus Professor since 2004. Hereturned to Turkey in 1999 and taught, without any interval, classes to undergraduate and graduate university students, and to high schoolstudents. He is the recipient of the MIT Department of Physics Buechner Teaching Prize (1987), the Science Award of TUBITAK (1988), theFellowship of the American Physical Society (1988-), the MIT School of Science Teaching Prize for Excellence in Graduate Education (1995),the Outstanding Turkish Scientist Citation of the Academy of Sciences of Turkey (1996), the Humboldt Research Award (2007), the Best Teacherof the Year of KocPost Student Newspaper (2008). He is a member of the Academy of Sciences of Turkey (1999-). He is the founder (2003) andDirector of the MIT-Turkey Freshman Scholars Program. As of February 2013, he has 134 scientific publications and 4732 citations. In 2011 hehas been elected to Academia Europaea.

1967 First place graduation from Robert College lycee, Istanbul, Turkey 1967-71 Undergraduate student at M.I.T., with Undergraduate Scholarship from M.I.T.: 5-year double-degree program in Physics and Chemistry completed in 4 years 1968 M.I.T. Freshman ChemistryPrize 1970-71 Course manager and tutor in Quantum Mechanics, M.I.T. Education Research Center 1971 American Institute of Chemists StudentAward 1971 Elected to Phi Beta Kappa Honorary Scholarship Society 1971-76 Graduate student with Professor M. Wortis, Department ofPhysics, University of Illinois, fully supported by University Fellowships, Research and Teaching Assistantships sum 1975 Guest JuniorResearch Associate, Department of Physics, Brookhaven National Laboratory 1977-79 Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Department of Physics,Harvard University sum 1979 Member, USA National Academy of Science exchange group to the USSR Academy of Science 1979-82 AssistantProfessor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1981-82 Consultant, IBM Zurich Laboratory 1981-85 Alfred P. SloanFellow 1982-88 Associate Professor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1982 Co-founded the Center for Theoretical CondensedMatter Physics at M.I.T. 01/1983 Visiting Associate Professor of Physics, Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 06/1984 Tenureawarded at M.I.T., one year ahead of schedule 04/1987 Visiting Associate Professor of Physics, Oxford University, England 1987 M.I.T.Department of Physics Buechner Teaching Prize 04/1988 Visiting Associate Professor of Physics, Katholieke Universiteit, Leuven, Belgium;Solvay Lecturer in Brussels, Belgium; Ehrenfest Lecturer in Leiden, the Netherlands 1988-04 Professor of Physics, MassachusettsInstitute of Technology 1988 Science Award of the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUB?TAK) 1988- Fellow of theAmerican Physical Society 1989- Consulting Professor, Bilkent University, Turkey 1993-94 Interdisciplinary Research Group leader, Centerfor Materials Science and Engineering, M.I.T. 1994,97-99 Founder and co-chairperson, Istanbul Technical University Statistical PhysicsDays. Editor of the Proceedings 1995 M.I.T. School of Science Teaching Prize for Excellence in Graduate Education 1996 Outstanding TurkishScientist Citation, given by the Academy of Sciences of Turkey 1996- Adjunct Professor, Bosphorus University, Turkey 1997-99 VisitingProfessor, Istanbul Technical University, Turkey 1999-04 Sabbatical leave and extended leave of absence from M.I.T. 1999-05 Professor ofPhysics, Istanbul Technical University 1999- Elected Full Member of the Academy of Sciences of Turkey (2008- Academy CouncilMember) 2000- Executive Committee (2007- Chairperson), TUBITAK F. Gursey Research Inst. for Basic Sciences, Turkey 2000-03 Head of theDepartment of Physics, Istanbul Technical University 2000-04 Academic Officer, Project Interphase, M.I.T. 2003-04 Dean of the School ofSciences and Letters, Istanbul Technical University 2003- Founder and Director, M.I.T.-Turkey Freshman Scholars Program 2004- EmeritusProfessor of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2005- Professor of Physics, Koc University 2007 Humboldt ResearchAward 01/2009 Best Teacher of the Year, KocPost Student Newspaper 1/1/2009-31/7/2009 Vice President, Sabancı University 1/8/2009President, Sabancı University

BSc Physics, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey MSc Physics, University of California, San Diego, USA PhD Physics, University of California, San Diego, USA

High Energy Astrophysics, black hole binaries, instrumentation

BS in EE, Middle East Tech. Univ., 1987 MS in Physics, Middle East Tech. Univ., 1990 PhD in Physics, Bilkent Univ., 1997

Electron transport in nanostructures Quantum Hall effect Scanning tunneling microscopy

1994 B.Sc. Physics, METU, Turkey 1997 M.Sc. Physics, METU, Turkey 1999-2000 Research fellow, The University of Leicester, UK 2002 Ph.d. Physics, METU, Turkey

High Energy Astrophysics: Neutron stars, accretion disks around neutron stars and black holes, emission mechanisms of broad-band radiation from neutron star magnetospheres and accretion disks.

B.Sc. in Physics, Middle East Technical University (METU, Ankara, Turkey), 1970; Ph.D. in Physics, University of Chicago, 1974.

Theoretical Particle Physics and Quantum Field Theory; General Theory of Relativity and Mathematical Physics.

B.Sc. in Physics, Middle East Technical University (1994) M.Sc. in Physics, Middle East Technical University (1997) Ph.D. in Physics, University of Alabama in Huntsville (2002)

High Energy Astrophysics: X-ray and Gamma-ray Properties of Magnetars, X-ray Binaries, Broadband Studies of Gamma Ray Bursts; Astronomy Education

B.Sc. in Physics, Middle East Technical University (METU), 1972; Ph.D. in Physics, Cambridge University (England), 1977.

Bilkent University, Department of Physics (M.S., 1989; Ph.D., 1992) Middle East Technical University (METU), Physics Department (B.S., 1987) Ankara Fen Lisesi (1984)

Theoretical condensed matter physics • Superconductivity: Nanoscopic systems, Josephson tunneling, superconductivity in very high magnetic fields • Quantum Hall Effect: Disorder and localization in high magnetic fields Quantum mechanics • Entanglement anddecoherence

Computational Molecular Biophysics: atomically-detailed characterization of functional conformational transitions in biomolecules. Theoretical Physical Chemistry: using molecular dynamics simulations to interpret data from magnetic resonance spectroscopyexperiments.

Ph.D. in Physics, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign; M.S. in Physics, B.S. in Physics and Mathematics Middle East Technical University.

Theoretical condensed matter physics. Spintronics and spin Hall effect. Topological insulators and superconductors. Mesoscale and nanoscale physics. Quantum transport theory. Graphene physics. Asymptotic methods in physics.

BSc in Physics, University of Istanbul (1989)
MSc in Physics, University of Wisconsin (1992)
PhD in Physics, Kansas State University (1999)

Mechanical, Tehrmodynamic, Electronic, and Structural Properties of Metal Nanowires and Nanotubes. Characteristics of Growth at nanoscale at Metal Surfaces; Structural and Vibrational Properties of Metal Surfaces. Properties of Quasicrystal Materials and Development of ModelPotentials for Quasicrystals. Statistical Modeling of Human Immune System; Differantiation of T cells at the Thymus.