Yusuf Leblebici becomes the new President of Sabancı University
The handover ceremony for the Presidency of Sabancı University was hosted by Sabancı University Founding Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı at the campus in Tuzla.
Güler Sabancı: “The return of a distinguished scientist to Turkey as the president of our university is a great gain for our university and country.”
Yusuf Leblebici: “We embark upon a new journey where we can show everyone what is possible with the young potential and motivation in Turkey, and take our achievements to a level that is deserved by both our country and our university."
Also present at the ceremony was the Sabancı University community and Chief Advisor to the President of the Republic for Science, Technology, Industry and University Policies, Professor Davut Kavranoğlu. Sabancı University President Zehra Sayers handed over the position to her successor Yusuf Leblebici.
Sabancı University President Zehra Sayers handed over her duties to Yusuf Leblebici at a ceremony hosted by Sabancı University Founding Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı.
President Yusuf Leblebici was formerly Chair Professor and Director of the Microelectric Systems Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), consistently among the best fundamental sciences, engineering and technology schools of the world.
“The return of a distinguished scientist to Turkey as the president of our university is a great gain for our university and country.”
Sabancı University Founding Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı spoke on behalf of the Board of Trustees, saying that Sabancı University had been building a tradition while simultaneously remaining open to change and innovation through its quest for the better since the beginning.
Güler Sabancı continued: “Next year, we will celebrate our 20th anniversary. We are a young university. But we also possess powerful and long-standing values of which there is never any compromise.
As the Sabancı University Board of Trustees, we followed a selection process that was congruent with our tradition, and chose Yusuf Leblebici of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne as our new President. Yusuf Leblebici’s acceptance of our offer is a great gain for our university and country.
It is a matter of pride and honor that, as a professor who made great contributions to the unique and pioneering system of education at Sabancı University during its foundation, Yusuf Leblebici returns to our university after his outstanding achievements and experience in Switzerland. We are delighted that a distinguished scientist has chosen to return to his country after his tenure at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, an institution that is recognized as one of the best worldwide. We are confident that, under his guidance, our university will take even stronger steps towards its strategic objectives. Our priorities going forward are more innovative teaching and practice-oriented research, and growth through centers in graduate studies.
The Board of Trustees would like to thank Zehra Sayers for her exceptional endeavors, and wish Yusuf Leblebici great success."
Yusuf Leblebici's predecessor Zehra Sayers was among the founding members of Sabancı University. Sayers has been a member of the Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences for 20 years, and was the Foundations Development Program Director before being appointed President. Zehra Sayers will remain a member of faculty at Sabancı University, and will continue her research on Molecular Biology at the EMBL Laboratory in Hamburg, Germany.
After the opening of the ceremony by Secretary General Haluk Bal and introductory remarks by the parties, Zehra Sayers, accompanied by Sabancı University Founding Board of Trustees Chair Güler Sabancı, presented the "Inscription of Academic Freedom at Sabancı University" designed by the late FASS Studio and Workshops Director Bayram Candan to her successor, Yusuf Leblebici. The handover ceremony ended with the laying of a commemorative brick prepared in the name of Professor Zehra Sayers.
Sabancı University's new President Yusuf Leblebici was Chair Professor and Director of the Microelectric Systems Laboratory at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), an institution that is consistently among the best fundamental sciences, engineering and technology schools of the world. Having developed the diploma program in Microelectrics as the Microelectics Program Coordinator of Sabancı University from 1999 to 2002, Yusuf Leblebici is an outstanding scientist who will be returning to Turkey from Switzerland.
“We embark upon a new journey where we can show everyone what is possible with the young potential and motivation in Turkey, and take our achievements to a level that is deserved by both our country and our university."
Speaking at the handover ceremony, the new President of Sabancı University, Yusuf Leblebici, said: "It is a pleasure to be back at Sabancı University after 17 years. I had been a part of the foundation of this university, beginning with the search conferences in 1997 and continuing with teaching activities first at Karaköy Minerva Palas and then on this campus after 1999, when I had contributed to designing the new diploma programs of Sabancı University. I had been involved in every step towards building something unheard of in Turkey, and had put in my unwavering support for doing things that were genuinely unique in this country.
Although I decided to continue my academic career abroad, my ties to Sabancı University were not severed. To the contrary, I viewed myself as an ambassador of this institution.
In the days to come, our objective will be to make our university one of the most respected, exemplary scientific institutions not just in Turkey, but around the world. We hope to be an inspiration to other institutions with our research activities, student potential, contribution to the community, and the positive effect we will create.
We embark upon a new journey where we can show everyone what is possible with the young potential and motivation in Turkey, and take our achievements to a level that is deserved by both our country and our university."
About Professor Yusuf Leblebici: Yusuf Leblebici received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical engineering from Istanbul Technical University, in 1984 and in 1986, respectively, and his Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) in 1990. Between 1991 and 1999, he worked as a faculty member at UIUC, at Istanbul Technical University, and at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), where he built and directed the VLSI Design Lab. In 1999-2002, he also served as the Microelectronics Program Coordinator at Sabancı University to develop the diploma program in Microelectronics.
From 2002, Professor Leblebici was a Chair Professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne (EPFL), and director of Microelectronic Systems Laboratory. His research interests include design of high-speed CMOS digital and mixed-signal integrated circuits, computer-aided design of VLSI systems, intelligent sensor interfaces, modeling and simulation of semiconductor devices, and VLSI reliability analysis. He is the coauthor of 7 books including two textbooks, as well as more than 250 articles published in various journals and conferences.
Yusuf Leblebici won the TÜBİTAK Incentive Prize in 1995, the "Joseph S. Satin Distinguished Fellow" award in 1999, and was chosen IEEE Fellow and IEEE Circuits and Systems Society Distinguished Lecturer in 2009.