Summer Highlights from TASSA

We hope that you have had an enjoyable and productive summer and are ready for an active fall season. As we gear up for the upcoming TASSA elections to be held in 2007 and accelerate our preparations for the 2008 TASSA Annual Conference, we would like to inform you about some of the activities that have kept us busy over the summer.

• TASSA President Suleyman Gokoglu and President-Elect Banu Onaral were interviewed by the Bilgi Cagi magazine in its May issue where they shared their views on how the Turkish diaspora can contribute to R & D in Turkey.
• In June, TASSA President-Elect Banu Onaral was an invited participant in a conference organized by the American Business Forum in Turkey (ABFT). The theme of the conference was “Building Value: Creating an Environment for Innovation and Change,” and Dr. Onaral gave her presentation in the session focusing on "The Human Factor."
• TASSA Nanobiotechnology Task Force has been officially established under the leadership of Prof. Selim Unlu from Boston University. They are starting up with an aim to coordinate the efforts of Turkish scientists involved in nanobiotechnology research in the U.S.A. and to link science and technology institutions in the two countries for the flow of people, knowledge, and technology.
• TASSA has selected a vendor and officially signed a contract to re-design and develop its Web site. This is a major undertaking led by the TASSA I.T. Committee towards addressing many strategic, informational, organizational and communication issues. Our new Web site is scheduled to be delivered just in time to be able to conduct the 2007 online General Assembly and elections using this brand new system.
• TASSA is proud to mention that, on September 6th, Northeastern University hosted the rectors of Middle East Technical University (ODTU) and 19 Mayis University (OMU) to discuss international collaborations on research and education. TASSA joined the reception which brought the rectors together with scientists and scholars living in the Boston area. Both ODTU and Northeastern Universities are Institutional Members of TASSA and we welcome OMU as a prospective member.

We will keep you informed of any new developments and upcoming activities in due course. In the meantime, we invite you to visit our Web site and participate in our Forum discussions on relevant scientific and scholarly subjects. As a seed example, we refer you to a Forum highlight about the recently proposed draft legislation on R & D in Turkey.

Sincerely,

TASSA Executive Committee