TASSA Board of Directors
President and Chairman of the BoardErcan Alp, Argonne Distinguished Fellow & Senior Physicist, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory
Board MembersSerap Aksoy, Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health
Hasan Ayaz, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Science, Drexel University
Utkan Demirci, Professor at School of Medicine, Stanford University
Ayse Imrohoroglu, Professor of Finance and Business Economics, Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California
Asu Ozdaglar, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the EECS Department at the MIT
Also see Executive Committee members (in alphabetical order)
Serap Aksoy is Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health. She is a graduate of Robert College, received her BS from Vassar College, NY and her PhD in Biology from Columbia University, NYC. After an initial postdoctoral research position, she joined the faculty of Yale School of Public Health where she chaired the Department of Epidemiology of Microbial Diseases (2002-2012, 2018, 2020). Her research focuses on the epidemiology of insect transmitted (vector borne) and zoonotic diseases. Her laboratory investigates tsetse flies and pathogenic parasites they transmit that cause fatal diseases of humans and livestock in Africa. She has pioneered novel biological control methods that reduce the ability of insects to transmit disease causing pathogens. She initiated and led an International Consortium that eventually sequenced the genome of six tsetse fly species and vastly expanded the genetic/genomics research in this neglected disease vector. She maintains extensive research and training collaborations with African institutions as well as with researchers in China, Italy and Turkey in the area of vector borne disease epidemiology and control. As Editor-in-Chief of Public Library of Sciences Neglected Tropical Diseases (2008-2020) she led efforts to build global research and publication capacity for tropical diseases of animals and humans. She often organizes workshops in scientific meetings on publication ethics and communication skills, including many that she organized with her peers in Turkey. Throughout her professional career, Aksoy has been an advocate of and innovator in Global Health; served as a dedicated mentor to students and scientists in the US and in Turkey, helping to prepare the next generation of leaders in the fields of epidemiology and zoonotic disease control.
She is an elected Fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), 2012; ASTMH Council Member, 2013-2018; Elected Fellow of Entomological Society of America, (ESA) 2015; USA Fulbright Scholar Italy, 2015; Steering Council Member of WHO/Trypanosomiasis Program, 2001-2008; Chair of WHO/TDR, Innovative Vector Control, 2008-2012; Member of NIAID/ NHGRI Pathogen and vector genome working group, 2010-2013; Member of NIH/NIAID Vector Biology Study Section 2007-2012 and Chair of NIH/NIAID Vector Biology Study Section, 2010-2012. Dr. Aksoy was awarded: Research Innovation and Leadership Award, Connecticut Technology Council of Women, 2015;Recipient of Medical Entomology Breakthrough Award ASTMH 2016; Elected Member, Connecticut Academy Science and Engineering (CASE), 2019 and Recipient of Africa Union Commission Outstanding Service Award, 2019.
Dr. Alp received BSc and MSc degrees from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, and PhD from Southern Illinois University. He is a staff member at Argonne National Laboratory since 1984. He worked with the first group of physicists to prepare the scientific case for the Advanced Photon Source. He is known for his work in nuclear resonant x-ray spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation since 1980. He formed the inelastic x-ray scattering group at the APS, and he was responsible for the design and construction of the inelastic x-ray scattering beamlines.
Dr. Alp was a member of Canadian Light Source Science Advisory Committee between 1999-2009. He was the co-chair of the first Scientific Committee for the SESAME project in Jordan (1999-2004), and helped write the scientific case for a synchrotron source in the Middle East, organized early workshops to develop a scientific user community. He continues to serve as a member of the Scientific Advisory Committees of SESAME. Dr. Alp is the chair of the International Science Advisory Committee for the Turkish Accelerator Center. He participates in many national and international panels, and advisory committees. He hosts international scientists and directs PhD theses for graduate students. He has published over 300 papers, book chapters, and organized and chaired international many conferences, summer schools and workshops. He was a visiting professor at Bilkent University, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, and at Northern Illinois University.
Hasan Ayaz is a Professor at Drexel University's School of Biomedical Engineering, Science & Health Systems; and a core member of the Cognitive Neuroengineering and Quantitative Experimental Research Collaborative. He received his BSc. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Boğaziçi University and received PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 2010 from Drexel University. For more than two decades, he worked on the development of miniaturized continuous wave near infrared spectroscopy systems focusing on neuroimaging. He has developed tools for monitoring brain that is now utilized routinely for clinical and field research in university, governmental and corporate labs. He also led the software development of the first optical-brain-monitoring medical device, Infrascanner, which is a portable-handheld instrument that utilizes near infrared to detect hematoma in head trauma patients. Dr. Ayaz’s research involves understanding the neural mechanisms related to human cognitive, and motor functioning with a focus on real-world contexts, mobile neuroimaging, and neuroengineering approaches for neuroergonomics applications. His research has been funded by federal agencies, corporate partners and foundations, and output 200+ publications.
Dr. Ayaz’s volunteer services to Turkish American community started in his first years as a PhD student. He has co-founded Drexel Turkish Student Association and served as its first president in 2006-2007. He has been serving TASSA in various capacities, as the student representative at the board from 2007 to 2009, later in technical committees and IT committee chair; and he was Vice-President of TASSA.
Dr. Utkan Demirci is a professor with tenure at Stanford University School of Medicine, and serves as the interim Director and Division Chief at the Canary Center for Cancer Early Detection of the Department of Radiology. He received his PhD from Stanford University in Electrical Engineering in 2005 as well as M.S. degrees in 2001 in Electrical Engineering, and in Management Science and Engineering in 2005. As his most important contribution, he has mentored and trained hundreds of successful scientists, entrepreneurs and academicians. As a result of these various contributions to science and engineering, he has been humbled by several honors including the NSF CAREER Award, IEEE EMBS Early Career Award. He was named as a fellow-elect of the AIMBE, and Distinguished Investigator of the Academy for Radiology and Biomedical Imaging Research. His lab collaborates with over 50 research groups and industry partners around the world. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed journal publications, 24 book chapters, 4 edited books, and more than 200 abstracts and proceedings. He holds over 25 patents and disclosures pending or granted and serves as an editorial board member for various peer-reviewed journals. His group focuses on developing innovative point-of-care technologies and creating microfluidic platforms for early cancer detection with broad applications to multiple diseases including infertility and HIV. Dr. Demirci’s seminal work in microfluidics has led to the development of innovative FDA approved platform technologies in medicine. His inventions have been licensed to numerous companies. He has co-founded several startups including DxNow, LevitasBio, MercuryBio and Koek Biotech and serves as advisor to multiple early stage companies. He holds several FDA approved and CE marked technologies that have been widely used by fertility clinics with assisted reproductive technologies leading to over 10,000 live child births globally.
Ayse Imrohoroglu is a macroeconomist who specializes in understanding business cycles, inflation, unemployment insurance, and social security. Her work has been published in the American Economic Review, Journal of Political Economy, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Review of Economic Studies, and Journal of Monetary Economics. She received a National Science Foundation grant in 1992 to investigate the effects of social security programs on economies with imperfect insurance. From 2004 to 2007, she was Chair of the Department of Finance and Business Economics.
Dr. Asu Ozdaglar received the B.S. degree from the Middle East Technical University in 1996, and the S.M. and Ph.D. degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), in 1998 and 2003, respectively.
She’s the Mathworks Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science in the EECS Department at the MIT. She’s the Department Head of EECS and the Deputy Dean of Academics in the Schwarzman College of Computing. Her research expertise includes optimization theory, distributed optimization and control, and network analysis.
Her awards include a Microsoft fellowship, NSF Career award, 2008 Donald P. Eckman award of the American Automatic Control Council, Class of 1943 Career Development Chair, inaugural Steven and Renee Innovation Fellowship, and 2014 Spira teaching award.