Co-chairs discuss the 2016 TASSA Conference
As the 2016 TASSA conference approaching fast, we reached out to co-choirs of the meeting organizing committee, Esen Ercan Alp (Argonne National Laboratory) and Burhaneddin Sandıkçı (University of Chicago) to bring you an update on the conference preparation. The meeting will be an exceptional one this year for one of the keynote speaker will be Dr. Aziz Sancar, the first Turkish scientists who received the Nobel Prize.
Can you tell us about the preparations for TASSA 2016 Conference?
One of the main items in our list was the meeting location. After lengthy discussions and a careful review, we have decided to host the meeting in the state-of-the-art building of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business, which is located on the main campus. We are very grateful to the Deans at the Booth School of Business for their generous support.
The next main item was identifying a general theme for this year’s meeting. Considering the particular strength of the mid-west region of the US, we decided “Science and Society” to be the main theme of the 2016 conference. Through this main theme, we aim to address the impact of current scientific research on society, and discuss the role of higher education and frontier research in bringing technological prowess and economic development.
How do you plan to achieve this goal?
We are organizing four distinct panels on physical sciences, medicine, economics, engineering, and education. These panels will bring together some of the top-notch researchers and administrators from the leading American and Turkish universities and research laboratories, which should provide participants a unique perspective on the impact of current scientific research on society.
Where are you now with respect to preparations?
Organizing large meetings is a community effort. We have mobilized our resources to select panel topics and identify invited speaker. We were very fortunate, for example, to reach and convince Dr. Aziz Sancar, 2015 Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, to join the conference as keynote speaker. Similarly, we are very pleased that Dr. Kenan Şahin will also join us as keynote speaker. Indeed, we have many luminaries across the country, who are confirmed to join the conference as speakers. The current list of confirmed speakers includes:
- Tamer Başar (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
- John Birge (University of Chicago)
- Serdar Bulun (Northwestern University)
- Hülya Eraslan (Rice University)
- Murat Günel (Yale University)
- Ali Hortaçsu (University of Chicago)
- Eric Isaacs (Provost of the University of Chicago)
- Ayşe İmrohoroğlu (University of Southern California)
- Sunil Kumar (Dean of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business)
- Peter Littlewood (Director of Argonne National Laboratory)
- Hayat Önyüksel (University of Illinois at Chicago)
- Asu Özdağlar (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
- Feryal Özel (University of Arizona)
- Tayfun Sönmez (Boston College)
- Miral Dizdaroğlu (NIST)
What else is going on with respect to preparations?
Well, one of the most exciting aspects of the TASSA Conferences is the Young Scholars Session. The call for nominations has been announced to the public, which will remain open until February 1, 2016. People can send their nominations now.
We are working on organizing Poster Sessions and a Job Fair at the conference. These events should provide ample opportunity for young scientists to meet with potential employers, and same is true for university administrators who are trying to recruit talent for their institutions.
We are also looking forward to arrange an exciting and memorable conference dinner.
Where can we learn more about the meeting?
The best place is, of course, the TASSA website:
http://www.tassausa.org/Annual-Conferences/2016
Any last thoughts?
We are quite excited about bringing TASSA 2016 Conference to Chicago. We are hopeful that academics and the graduate students in the Midwest, and across the country, will take advantage of this unique opportunity and join us during the meeting at the Windy City!
Esen Ercan Alp (Argonne National Laboratory)
Burhaneddin Sandıkçı (University of Chicago)
