TASSA 2016 Conference

Dear Members and Friends of TASSA,

It is a great pleasure to share with you our current plans and the progress for the upcoming TASSA 2016 Conference, which will be held at the University of Chicago on April 2-3, 2016. As the conference program committee, we are all very excited about this signature event of TASSA. Continuing the tradition, the conference registration will be free of charge to encourage you all to contribute to the success of this important event.
This year’s conference theme will be centered on “Science and Society”. Scientific progress has been the driving force that provides sound and sustainable solutions to emerging technical and social challenges and it creates new opportunities that are likely to transform our world in the coming decades. Chicago and Midwest play a vital role in shaping the social and economic thought processes, contributes significantly to communication, medical, transportation and energy technologies, and basic science. We are working towards putting together a stellar program that will fulfill this year’s theme.

We are very happy to announce that Aziz Sancar, 2015 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, and Kenan Şahin, President of TIAX, have agreed to join us as keynote speakers. Other confirmed speakers for the conference include, among many other powerhouses: John Birge, professor at University of Chicago and former Dean of Engineering at Northwestern University; Eric Isaacs, Provost of University of Chicago; Sunil Kumar, Dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business; and Peter Littlewood, Director of Argonne National Laboratory. The conference will also be addressed and attended by the Minister of Science, Industry and Technology of Turkey, Hon. Fikri Işık, and Turkish Council General of Chicago, Hon. Umut Acar.

In addition, there are also some unique opportunities that we aim to provide to you through this conference. First, we are proud to continue our tradition to recognize and honor the achievements of young Turkish American scientists and scholars. All members and friends of TASSA are invited to submit a nomination (including self-nominations) for the TASSA Young Scholars Award. Each winner, under the age of 35, will receive an Award Certificate at the conference and will deliver an oral presentation during the TASSA meeting. More details including nomination deadline are available at http://www.tassausa.org/Annual-Conferences/2016/Young-Scholar-Award.

During the conference, we will also have poster presentations from individual scholars as well as Turkish and U.S. institutions aiming to provide a convenient and informal forum to stimulate the exchange of ideas and build bridges. We expect that attendees from Turkey and the U.S. will find these poster sessions valuable to initiate contact and useful discussions towards fruitful future collaborations. More details including submission deadline are available at http://www.tassausa.org/Annual-Conferences/2016/Poster-Session.

The TASSA conference in April will also feature a job fair, which will provide invaluable networking and interview opportunities for individual scholars, especially for those who are currently in the job market. This fair will host a number of Turkish and U.S. institutions, including various universities, techno-parks, government organizations/labs, NGOs, companies, etc. and provide them with unique recruitment opportunities by helping them broadly reach the talent pool of the Turkish American scientists and scholars. To be part of this fair and reserve your spot, please visit the TASSA conference website.

Last but not least, we are also planning for an exciting social program in the beautiful city of Chicago.

We sincerely hope that you also share our excitement on this upcoming TASSA conference and we look forward to having you join us in April and contribute to the success of our meeting!

Best Regards,
Esen Ercan Alp, Ph.D.
Burhaneddin Sandıkçı, Ph.D.
Co-chairs of the TASSA 2016 Conference Program Committee