Research interests

My academic interests are in ecology, evolutionary genetics and conservation. I am interested in understanding how populations change over time.

Current work

I recently joined the CONSEVOL group as a PhD student, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science. My project will focus on the origin and impact of chromosomal inversions on the evolution and physiology of common quails (EVOLQUAIL) and supervised by Ines Sanchez-Donoso and Carles Vilà.

Previous work

I completed my bachelor's degree in Genetics and Bioengineering at Bilgi University, Turkey. During my studies, I joined different research groups as an intern. My first internship was focused on de novo evolution of genes at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology, under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Diethard Tautz. The following year, I did an internship at METU Ankara, Turkey. Here, I joined the Biodiversity and Conservation Research Group, supervised by Dr. Bilgin, and was involved in the migration of scops owls project. During this internship, I experienced in-depth fieldwork, and this project allowed me to understand my interest in conservation genetics. After completing my undergraduate degree, I went to the Aras Bird Station as a volunteer, and had an opportunity to work with birds.

I continued my MSc studies in Molecular Biology and Genetics at Koç University, Turkey. My thesis focused on the phylogeny of brown bear populations in Turkey under the supervision of Prof. Çagan Sekercioglu. The main aim of my thesis was to understand the evolutionary history of these populations utilizing both mtDNA D-loop control region and RAD sequences. During my MSc, I worked as a teaching assistant for courses in Genome Analysis and Bioinformatics and Genetics. I also worked as a funded student on the TUBITAK project on landscape genetics of brown bear populations in Turkey and performed some population genetic analyses as part of this project. This period allowed me to understand my enthusiasm for evolutionary genetics.