24/12/2025
The 2025 Outstanding Young Scientist Awards (TÜBA-GEBİP), given by the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA) to support young scientists, were presented at the Presidential Complex. Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences faculty member Dr. Duygu Kuzuoğlu Öztürk and Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences faculty member Dr. Eren Günseli received their awards from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Contribution to Cancer Research at the Molecular Level
Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences faculty member Dr. Duygu Kuzuoğlu Öztürk investigates how the WNT pathway, which plays a significant role in the spread of prostate cancer, is controlled at the post-transcriptional level in her project that was found deserving of the TÜBA-GEBİP Award. The goal is to develop new treatment methods for cancer by understanding these mechanisms at the molecular level. Dr. Duygu Kuzuoğlu Öztürk had previously received the L’Oréal Türkiye–UNESCO Young Woman Scientist Award for her study entitled “Investigation of Protein Production Control Mechanism in Prostate Cancer and Its Translation into Therapy”.
A New Perspective on How Memory Works
Dr. Eren Günseli, a faculty member at the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, investigates when the brain recalls information in his project, which was awarded the TÜBA-GEBİP Award. Recent findings from Dr. Günseli's research team show that memory can make a flexible choice between energy-consuming active recall and more economical, direct, passive memory use. The study, conducted using behavioral tasks and EEG measurements, aims to analyze the conditions under which this flexibility emerges and to reshape our current understanding of memory processes. Dr. Eren Günseli had previously won the BAGEP Award and the METU Mustafa Parlar Research Incentive Award, as well as the TÜBİTAK Incentive Award.
Supporting Young Scientists Since 2001
The TÜBA-GEBİP Awards, given since 2001, encourage outstanding young scientists working in the fields of natural sciences, engineering, health sciences, and social sciences to continue their scientific studies in Türkiye, to establish their own research groups, and to produce internationally qualified projects originating from Türkiye.
