Prof. Mehmet Emin Özel



(1 OCT 2017)

Personal:
Born in 1946, married, 1 daughter, retired in 2009, lecturing part time in some local universities. Living in Istanbul-Turkey.

Education:
Middle East Technical Univ. (METU-Ankara/Turkey), Dept of Physics, BSc (1964-1969), Msc (1972), PhD (prepared a thesis at Goddard Space Flight Center –Greenbelt-MD-, on gamma ray observations of galactic cosmic rays by gamma ray satellite SAS-2 and submitted at METU Physics Dept. 1979).

Research Background:
Domestic: Projects conducted at several Türkish universities and researc institutions:
METU: several TUBITAK –Turkish National Research Council- supported projects, 1
NATO-supported Science for Peace Project,
TUBITAK Marmara Research Center : Several local governer and national NGO-
supported projects, 1 UN/UNDP-UNIDO supported International Project,
Several local universities: University- funded graduate reseach projects.
External: Projects conducted at foreign universties nd research institutions:
Univ. of Illinois-Urbana Champaign-USA (1979);
Max Planck Institut für Extratrerrestrische Physik, - Munchen-Germany (1980-1983);
Max Planck Inst. für Radioastronomie, Bonn-Germany (1983-1986);
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Lab. For High Energy Astrophysics (1976, 1986-1989, 1995);
Italian Cosmic Physics Institute, Palermo (1986).

Research Projects and Publications:
I have carried out research projects in ntionl and international agencies and universites. I published their ersults and other reseach articles in several international (Nature, Astrophysical Journal, Astronomy and Astrophysics …, conference proceedings) and national (TUBITAK-supported refereed journals such as Turkish Journal of Physics, university supported journals and proceedings, special publications and conference proceedings). The number of such scientific publications exceeds 200.
I have also organised many national and inernational conferences and participated in many such meetings with invited and contributed talks and papers.

Teaching and Other Educational Activities:
I have given academic lessons and public lectures at many universities and cities. My lecture titles include, among others, Introductory Physics, Introductory Astronomy, Advanced Physics and Astronomy/Astrophysics Courses at undergraduate and graduate levels. My expertise in lecturing also incudes topics of Radiation Physics, Health Physics, History of Science and Statistics. I lectured these topics in Turkish and in English, mostly in Turkish universities. I also prepared lecture notes and presentation slides for students for furher work and study.

Public Lectures and Popular Science Activities (oral):
At different platforms (university and public lecture halls, radio and TV shows and …), I gave talks and and participated at discussions, upon invitation and several occasions.

Popular Science Activities (written):
(1) I wrote, at several occasions, on different topics of science (mostly on astonomy) many popular articles, upon invitation, or by my own iniative, in diffrenet platforms (weekly, monthly magasines, internet web sites, …). Such write-ups should have reached, in number to about 100. I continiue to write such articles almost regularly (about once in a month).
(2) Also, I prepared 1 popular astronomy book on how to observe night sky with popular notions about stars and other celestial phenomena: “Gökyüzünü Tanıyalım” (Let us Observe the Night Sky by Naked Eye). The book was published more than 15 times and has sparked an interest in the night-sky observations among the public and students at different levels.
(3) Later, I also prepared a computer-based CD (compact disc) on topics of popular sceince and astronomy to the interest of high school and university students and also for interested people, in Turkish (Publisher: Perspektif Yayıncılık, 1991).

Topics of Research:
My MSc and PhD theses are on the topic of high energy astrophysical phenomena in the x-ray and gamma ray regimes. Celestial objects such as supernovae, neutron stars, black holes, white dwarfs, x and gamma ray emission processes and sources of cosmic rays. Later, I made a deeper searces into the nature of gamma ray sources (galactic, extragalactic, univesal, local atmospheric). Radio emission from such sources were also part of my program. Statistical methods of analysis of x-ray, gamma ray and particle data recorded by instruments were also of interest to me with due analysis techniques, including the simulation of such dedector systems by sevaral methods (i.e., Monte Carlo and other statistical approaches). Some reseach on nuclear physics including radiation safety and most recently, the science of meteoritics have also been of interest to me.