Keynote talk by Prof. Zehra Sayers, Sabanci University, Istanbul: “SESAME: a bright light in the Middle East”
3 June 2020, 6 - 7:00 p.m., online via Zoom
Registration for the keynote talk: https://form.jotform.com/201403350464342. The online meeting details will be e-mailed to all registrants prior to the talk.
Zehra Sayers, Professor of Biophysics at Sabanci University and currently visiting Scientist at EMBL Hamburg will be giving a talk on science diplomacy followed by an open discussion. She will demonstrate how scientists reach across borders and work together for a common goal: SESAME, a collaborative synchrotron facility for advanced research in the Middle East.
Zehra's contribution to these efforts was recognized by the BBC and she was as listed as one of BBC’s 100 Most Inspiring and Influential Women of 2019. Together with four other scientists she was also rewarded the Science Diplomacy award in 2019 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
Note: The keynote talk is open for all scientists, equal opportunity enthusiasts, and everyone else who is interested to learn more about research cooperations in which science, diplomacy and society cross paths.
More about Zehra Sayers:
Zehra is a professor of Biophysics and one of the founding members of Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences at Sabanci University (SU), Turkey. She has also served as the Director of Foundations Development (Core Curriculum) Program (2010-2018) and as the interim President of SU (2018).
Professor Sayers has an international research career including working as a staff scientist at EMBL Hamburg and post doc work at the open University Oxford Research Unit, UK and the Wallenberg Laboratory in Uppsala Sweden. Currently she is on a research sabbatical at the EMBL Hamburg Unit. Her latest research focus is on mechanisms of iron binding and release from a bacterial iron transporter.
Professor Sayers has been the Chair of the Science Advisory Committee (SAC) of SESAME (Synchrotron-light for Experimental Science and Applications in the Middle East) for over 15 years. She is a recipient of the Rammal Award (2017) for her scientific research as well as contributions, as Chair of SAC, to the SESAME project from its construction to maturation as an international user facility. For this she was also a co-recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s 2019 award for Science Diplomacy and she was included in the BBC list of 100 Most Inspiring and Influential Women of 2019.
Professor Sayers is the Chair of the Steering Committee for the Turkish Accelerator project at Ankara University, Turkey and an honorary member of the Science Academy of Turkey.
