The TÜBA-GEBİP and TÜBA-TEÇEP Award Ceremony and TÜBA’s 45th General Assembly Took Place
In the scope of the TÜBA, Academic Day; The Young Scientist Outstanding Achievement Award (GEBİP) and Science Copyright and Translation Award (TEÇEP) ceremonies and the 45th General Assembly took place at the Rixos Grand Hotel Ankara on June 23,2014 with the attendance of the Esteemed Fikri Işık, Minister of Science, Industry and Technology.
In the opening speech made at the ceremony by TÜBA Chairman Prof. Dr. Acar, he expressed his thoughts on how much the talent represented by the Academy had change in terms of the make-up of members compared to previous years. Explaining that they have been working towards making TÜBA a national organization which represents Turkey in the best possible way both nationally and internationally as a national academy, added such efforts would continue.
Minister of Science, Industry and Technology Fikri Işık: "We are in the situation of having to shift production from muscle power to brain power”
Minister Fikri Işık started his speech at the ceremony by expressing his belief that science encourages people and that awards accelerate the development of scientific studies. He added that science can only be done with passion and devotion, reminded everyone that the founders of the Republic had also regarded intelligence, knowledge and science as indispensible and that significant contributions were made to science throughout the history of the Republic in Turkey. Işık pointed out that while Turkey had only 1 university in 1930, there are 180 universities throughout Turkey today and the number of students exceeds 5.5 million. Emphasizing that serious efforts were being made by the government to increase the quality as much as the quantity of universities, Işık continued with the following: "We need to shift production from muscle power to brain power. The basis of science is curiosity, this is why we want TÜBA to be more active in promoting science. As the government, we do not avoid any sacrifice when it comes to the advancement of science in Turkey. In order to fulfill Turkey’s 2023 goals we must shift from muscle power to brain power. Turkey does not have underground resources. Other than some certain mines we do not have a large amount of resources that can be transformed into money but Turkey does have a very powerful human resources potential. Transforming this human resources potential to value is the point where we have a lot of ground to cover. As the government we have determined our goal to elevate the country’s scientific infrastructure, R&D and innovation ecosystem in order to be able to make these jumps into the future."
“In the mid-term Turkey will achieve at least 1000 R&D centers”
Işık, who said that R&D expenditures had increased and that this was being supported by the private sector as well, expressed how pleasing this news was. Pointing out that the number of R&D centers in Turkey has reached 157 as a result of new regulations, Işık added “I believe this number will exceed 300 very soon in Turkey”.
Following the opening speeches the TÜBA-GEBİP and TÜBA-TEÇEP awards were presented to the scientists who had won them by Minister Işık. In the GEBİP 2013 program 26 young scientists won in the fields of nature, engineering, health and social studies while in the GEBİP 2014 program 15 young scientists won awards.
While a total of 7 works won “Copyright and Translation Awards” in the field of nature, engineering, health and social studies in the TEÇEP 2013 program, 12 works received “Notable Works Awards (Honorable Mention)”. In the TEÇEP 2014 a total of 6 works won “Copyright and Translation Awards” in the field of nature, engineering, health and social studies and 10 works received “Notable Works Awards (Honorable Mention)”. The Copyright Translation Award for 2013 and 2014 was 20 Thousand Lira, Notable Works Award (Honorable Mention) was 7 Thousand Lira, the Translation Work Award was 12 Thousand 500 Lira and the Notable Works Award (Honorable Mention) was 4 Thousand Turkish Lira.
The number of young scientists awarded in 2013 and 2014 for outstanding achievement in the scope of TÜBA-GEBİP was 335 and 161 works were awarded in the scope of TÜBA-TEÇEP.
The Prof. Dr. Münci Kalayoğlu Conference
After the award ceremony TÜBA Honorary Member Prof. Dr. Münci Kalayoğlu’s conference titled “The Present and Future of Organ Transplants in the World and in Turkey” which was followed with great interest took place continuing with Academic Day and concluding with TÜBA’s 45th General Assembly which was conducted closed to the press.
