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Olcay Akman
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Dr. Olcay Akman, the Biomathematics Program coordinator at the Department of Mathematics of Illinois State University, gave a series of talks at Izmir University of Economics (IUE) in Turkey on April 10-25, 2008. ISU has recently signed a protocol with IUE for student and faculty exchange to support a joint Biomathematics agenda. The workshop and Akman’s visit were supported in part by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), and IUE. In addition, on April 22 over forty scientists and students from departments of Physics, Statistics, and Biology at Dokuz Eylul University (DEU) attended Akman’s talk titled “Introduction to Predictive Neural Network Models for Biologists.” Click Read More for more photos.
On Thursday, April 24, five sessions with Akman were held in a full day workshop at IUE. Dr. Ismihan Bayramoglu, Dean of the College of Science, noted in his opening statement that Biomathematics was the scene of the fastest developments in interdisciplinary studies. The Dean added that he fully supported a protocol on joint research projects and student/faculty exchange which had been recently signed between ISU and IUE. Bayramoglu said “We signed a protocol between Department of Mathematics and Illinois State University in the framework of joint agreements and student and lecturer exchange. We cordially support the studies of the lecturers
in this field.”
The Thursday workshop was also attended by several enthusiastic faculty and students from the Aegean University, 9 Eylul University, and the Izmir Institute of Technology.
On Friday the 25th, Akman gave an hour-long talk titled “The Applications of Genetic Algorithms in Biology” at IUE, which was again attended by a large, diverse audience. The seminar was followed by a lively question-answer session.