From The President: TASSA Publishes 2012 Annual Report
Dear Friends of TASSA,
We have another exciting issue of The Bridge for you. In this issue our top stories come from TASSA. We have issued our 2012 Annual Report. The Report summarizes the many activities the members of the TASSA Executive Committee and Board have undertaken together with our volunteers from technical groups and standing committees, and TASSA community at large. Please have a look at the report and let us know what you think. Any feedback will be highly appreciated.
Our second story pertains to RASRA (Report of the Annual Scholarly and Research Accomplishments). RASRA is TASSA’s flagship publication and will highlight outstanding Turkish scholars and researchers, particularly those recognized by their peers for their achievements. This report will showcase the many accomplishments of the Turkish Science Diaspora in the North America but to do a good job we need your help. I urge you to take a moment and answer the RASRA questionnaire so that we can have a fair representation of the many successes of the Turkish diaspora scientists and scholars.
I also want to draw your attention to the story on Gokhan Hotamisligil. Gokhan has received the prestigious Vehbi Koc award and in his acceptance speech he has delivered a phenomenal talk. Please listen to this inspirational talk and distribute to young people around you.
I want to draw your attention to a new initiative that we are about to take. TASSA is a very respectable community and women scientists in this organization have major accomplishments. At the Executive Committee we have decided to leverage this power and organize a workshop on Turkish women scientists and scholars this Fall in Washington DC. Our objective is to create a platform where our women scientists and scholars can come together and debate how we can help our daughters in Turkey to be more attracted to STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. More to come on this in the near future.
Finally, please read the report very carefully prepared by Hasan Ayaz. He has uncovered important statistics about patent applications in the US from researchers outside the US. The data are by country and show which countries received patents from the USPTO. We observe that patent applications from Turkey are quite dismal. Hasan does not analyze what the causes and implications of this finding is but as TASSA, I think we should take this information very seriously and start investigating what TASSA can do to promote patentable research in Turkish universities. More to come on this issue.
I know everyone is looking forward to the Spring and Summer months and those exotic vacations in Turkey. I don’t blame anyone after all that snow we had. I think we paid our dues this Winter and deserve an enjoyable Spring and Summer.
All the Best,
Haluk Unal
TASSA President