Professor Ozgur Baris Akan

Prof. Özgür Barış Akan is an alumni of Ankara Fen Lisesi (Science High School), received BS and MS in electrical and electronics engineering from Bilkent University (1999) and Middle East Technical University (2002), and PhD in electrical and computer engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (2004).

Prof. Akan is the Chair Professor of Electronic and Communication Engineering and the Head of the Centre for neXt Communications (CXC) at the Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge. He is also the AXA Chair Professor in Internet of Everything and the Founding Director of Centre for neXt Communications (CXC) and the Director of Next-generation and Wireless Communications Laboratory (NWCL), Koç University. He served as the Director of Graduate School of Sciences and Engineering (2013-2016 and 2019-2021), Dean of College of Engineering (2019-2021), Vice President for Research and Development (2021-2022), Koç University. His current research interests are in wireless, space, quantum and biological communications, machine learning, information theory and IoE.

Prof. Akan is an IEEE Fellow. He is an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological and Multi-scale Communications and Nano Communication Networks Journal (Elsevier). He served as an Editor for IEEE Transactions on Communications, IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, IEEE Communications Magazine, IEEE Networking Letters, Scientific Reports (Nature), IET Communications, International Journal of Communication Systems (Wiley), European Transactions on Telecommunications, Ad Hoc Networks (Elsevier). He also served as the General Co-Chair for IEEE INFOCOM 2017, ACM MobiCom 2012 and IEEE MoNaCom 2012, and TPC Co-Chair for ACM NanoCom 2014, IEEE ISCC 2012, and ACM MSWiM 2010 and many others.

Prof. Akan received AXA Chair Professorship in Molecular Information and Communication Technologies (2020-2025), Turing Fellowship from the Alan Turing Institute (2021), TÜBİTAK Science Award (2020), ERC Consolidator Grant (2014), ERC PoC Grant (2019). He was appointed as IEEE Nanotechnology Council (NTC) Distinguished Lecturer (2017), and IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) Distinguished Lecturer (2011). He received the TÜBİTAK Young Scientist Award (2014), Koç University Outstanding Faculty of the Year Award (2014 and 2012), Kadir Has University Promising Scientist Award (2014), The Science Academy Young Scientist Award (2014), Koç University College of Engineering Outstanding Faculty of the Year Award (2012), IBM Shared University Research (SUR) Award (2011), IEEE Communications Society Outstanding Young Researcher Award for EMEA (2010), IBM Faculty Award (2010 and 2008), Turkish Academy of Sciences Distinguished Young Scientist Award (2008) and many other recognitions.