29/09/2026
Sabancı University PhD student Nihan Birgün won the "Best Poster" award, taking second place out of approximately 180 posters in the "Fundamentals" category, at Graphene Week 2026, held in Porto, Portugal.
Graphene Week 2026, one of Europe’s leading international conferences in the field of graphene and two-dimensional materials, took place in Porto from September 21 to 25. Organized by the Graphene Flagship, the event brought together researchers, entrepreneurs, and students from both academia and industry.
Sabancı University PhD student Nihan Birgün secured second place in the conference's "Fundamentals" category with her work conducted under the Light-G-Comp project. This achievement, selected from among approximately 180 posters, highlights the recognition of the young researcher's work within the international scientific community. Birgün is supervised by Prof. Dr. Burcu Saner Okan, a faculty member at the Sabancı University Faculty of Engineering and Natural Sciences, and co-supervised by Prof. Yarjan Abdul Samad, a faculty member at Khalifa University.
The Light-G-Comp project, coordinated by Sabancı University and led by Prof. Dr. Burcu Saner Okan, is funded by the Graphene and 2D Materials Research and Innovation Center (RIC2D) at Khalifa University. The project focuses on transforming waste polymers into advanced materials. Activities within the project involve producing electrically conductive graphene from waste plastics and reusing this material in composites. This approach aims to reintegrate waste into the material cycle by converting it into value-added materials.
