Meet the Research Team
Dr. Gokce KOR BICAKCI
The Experienced Researcher
Dr. Gokce Kor Bicakci is a distinguished Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoc researcher at Boğaziçi University's Institute of Environmental Sciences in Istanbul. Passionate about waste-to-energy processes, she's dedicated to minimizing waste and maximizing resource recovery while tackling the risks of emerging contaminants. Her notable project, "RADIOFREPOLIS," investigates energy-efficient radio frequency pretreatments on micropollutants, funded by the European Commission's Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellowship. As a young woman scientist who is working on improving waste-to-energy processes and preventing risks of PPCPs to human and ecosystem, she is also looking to establish a solid publication record by increasing number publications related to research area.
She earned her Ph.D. degree in the field of Environmental Biotechnology from the Institute of Science and Technology at the Istanbul Technical University (in Turkey) in January 2019, where she focused on investigating effect of microwave pretreatment on fate of antimicrobials & conventional pollutants during anaerobic sludge digestion and biosolids quality for land application. During her doctorate, she recognized with the “International Research Fellowship” by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, and carried out her Ph.D. research abroad in the University of British Columbia (BC, Canada). She joined UBC Bioreactor Technology Group in the School of Engineering at the UBC Okanagan Campus to conduct laboratory and research activities as part of her scholarship.
She's been internationally recognized, with accolades including the “ISO 2018 Environment Award” by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry, and the “GWP Award Turkey” by the German Water Partnership. Completing her M.Sc. at Istanbul Technical University (Istanbul, Turkey) in 2012, Dr. Kor Bicakci delved into the removal of micropollutants in biological systems. Additionally, she gained invaluable experience as an environmental engineer in an R&D firm. With a foundation in Environmental Engineering and a minor in Mechanical Engineering in Marmara University (Istanbul, Turkey), Dr. Kor Bicakci seamlessly merges her multidisciplinary background, solidifying her impactful scientific journey.
Dr. Cigdem ESKICIOGLU, P.Eng
Supervisor - University of British Columbia (UBC) - Canada
Dr. Eskicioglu is a Professor and NSERC/Metro Vancouver Industrial Research Chair (IRC) in the School of Engineering, at the University of British Columbia (UBC), specializing in wastewater and sludge treatment. She is also the Founder/Leader of the Bioreactor Technology Group (BTG), which focuses on advanced wastewater treatment processes for more efficient contaminant removal, energy conservation and production, resource recovery and mitigation of trace contaminants of emerging concern (TCEC). BTG operates three state-of the-art laboratory facilities (i.e., Advanced Anaerobic Digestion, Particle Sizing/Imaging and TCEC Detection) at UBC’s Okanagan Campus.
Dr. Eskicioglu has been recognized by the UBC Okanagan’s Researcher of the Year Award (2020), the UBC’s Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists Recognition Nomination (2020), the School of Engineering’s Outstanding Researcher Award (2017), the British Columbia Confederation of University Faculty Associations (CUFA) Early in Career Award (2012) and the City of Kelowna’s Mayor’s Environmental Award (2011). She is also the recipient of the NSERC Postgraduate Scholarship, the University of Ottawa National Excellence Scholarship and the Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA) Doctoral Research Award.
https://engineering.ok.ubc.ca/about/contact/cigdem-eskicioglu/
http://bioreactortechgroup.ok.ubc.ca/
Dr. Aysen ERDINCLER
Supervisor - Bogazici University (BU) - Turkey
Dr. Aysen Erdincler is a full professor of BU and her interest areas are treatment and management of wastewater sludge/solid waste, biofuel production from biomass, sludge minimization and waste-to-energy systems. Dr. Erdincler has taken her second MS, PhD and post-doctoral researcher degrees from Duke University (USA), under the supervision of P. Aarne Vesilind who is the author of “Introduction to Environmental Engineering” coursebook. Prof. Erdincler is continuing this research tradition in BU since 1997.
She has a recognized academic track record with research papers and conference proceedings, in addition to diverse experience as supervisor with PhD and MSc students. Dr. Erdincler has managed and refereed several high-budget projects such as EC FP7 and Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) projects.
As of December 2019, Dr. Erdincler was appointed as the Head of Environmental Protection & Development Department of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality.
https://iesc.boun.edu.tr/
Meet the Scientific Advisory Board
Dr. Thomas JOHNSON
University of British Columbia (UBC) - Canada
Thomas Johnson joined the School of Engineering - UBC in July 2009. He was formerly a Technical Fellow at Pulsewave RF in Austin, Texas where he was collaborating in the research and development of RF switch-mode power amplifiers and nonlinear feedback linearization techniques for wireless infrastructure applications. He received his Ph.D. in 2007 from Simon Fraser University where his research focused on the analysis of power efficiency in RF switch-mode amplifier architectures employing bandpass delta-sigma modulation. Dr Johnson received his MASc in 2001, and contributed to the invention of wideband feedforward linearization techniques, and DSP algorithms for calibrating and adjusting multitap RF equalizers. Prior to graduate studies, he spent twelve years as a technical lead in various companies including ADC Telecommunications, MPR Teltech, and Norsat.
Dr. Hélène CARRÈRE
INRA · Laboratoire de Biotechnologie de l’Environnement (LBE) - France
Dr. Hélène Carrère has been the Research Director at National Institute for Agricultural Research - Laboratory of Environmental Biotechnology (INRA-LBE) since 2008. She has extensive knowledge on pretreatment of various types of biomass to optimize their bio-conversion into energy and byproducts. She holds a significant list of scientific publications with over 105 papers in scientific journals with more than 4500 citations (h-index: 35, Web of Science) in addition to 160 conference proceedings, 11 book chapters, 2 patents. She has supervised 29 MSc, 15 PhD, 5 post-doc and 3 visiting researchers.
https://www6.montpellier.inra.fr/narbonne/Personnel2/Les-chercheurs/Helene-CARRERE
Dr. Emine COKGOR
Istanbul Technical University (ITU) - Turkey
Dr. Emine Cokgor is full professor at ITU. She has 28 years of teaching and research experience in the field of environmental science and technology Dr. Cokgor has managed numerous research studies and projects in environmental biotechnologies. She actively participated to COST Action 636 (ESSEM): Xenobiotics in the Urban Water Cycle (2005-2009). She holds an extensive list of publications with over 140 papers and 2849 citations (h-index: 30, Google Scholar).
http://akademi.itu.edu.tr/en/