• PhD in Economic Geography at University of Birmingham (2012)
• MSc in Urban Planning and Policy Design at Politecnico di Milano University (2008)
• MA in Town Planning at the University of Sheffield (2008-Erasmus Exchange)
• BA in City and Regional Planning with a minor degree in Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Remote Sensing (RS) at Middle East Technical University (2006)

I did my undergraduate degree in the City and Regional Planning Department at Middle East Technical University in Turkey with a minor degree in GIS and RS (2001-2006). In my third year, I was involved in an intensive Erasmus exchange program for a month at Hamburg University to work on the Hafen City Regeneration Project in Hamburg. During my undergraduate degree, I had chance to get involved in various voluntary and paid positions such as World Wildlife Foundation, the Turkish Ministry of Public Works and Settlement, the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Forestry, TUBITAK Space Technologies Research Institute.

After I finished my undergraduate degree, I did my masters in Urban Planning and Policy Design at Politecnico di Milano University in Italy (2006-2008). During this time, I was involved in the university research projects such as Garibaldi Republica and EXPO 2015. I was an Erasmus exchange student in the second year of my masters degree and I did an MA degree in Town Planning at the University of Sheffield (2007-2008). During the time of my Erasmus degree, I had two placement opportunities in the Glasgow City Council and Yorkshire Forward Development Agency.

I started my PhD in September 2008. Since then, I was appointed as the College Coordinator of Life and Environmental Science and I worked with the Careers Centre at the University to deliver tailored training programs for the doctoral researchers in my college. I worked for Coventry New Deal for Communities as an internal consultant and delivered a report on long term unemployment and employability. I have been doing demonstration at the University of Birmingham since Oct 2010 on various modules such as Mapping the Midlands, Understanding Neighborhood Poverty and the Urban and Regional Economy. I have also been the coordinator for Centre for Strategic Research and Analysis (www.cesran.org) since Sep 2008 and I am the editor of Political Reflection Magazine World Stories which is one of the publications of the think-tank. Moreover, during my PhD period, I have been involved in various training programs such as World Bank Frontiers of Development (April 2011), Vitae Leadership for Action (March 2011), Social Return On Investment Training (Aug 2009) and Cambridge University Enterprisers Program (Jan 2009).

Urban and regional planning, regional development, employability

Research group

Society, Economy and Environment