Timuçin Balkan obtained his bachelor’s degree from the Department of Chemistry. Subsequently, he completed their master’s degree in 2010 and his Ph.D. in 2016 at Istanbul Technical University, Institute of Science and Technology, in the Polymer Science and Technology Department. During this period, he also worked as a research assistant in the Department of Physical Chemistry at Istanbul Technical University. During his Ph.D. studies, he conducted research on the photoelectrochemical properties of TiO2-based materials in a joint project with the Institute of Chemical Process Fundamentals in the Czech Republic. In 2016-2017, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Bilkent UNAM on conjugated structures. Later, he joined Koç University and worked as a researcher at the Tüpraş Energy Center (KÜTEM) and the Nanofabrication and Nanocharacterization Application and Research Center (n2STAR), respectively. He has conducted research at Koç University, particularly focusing on the design of electrocatalysts and their catalytic effects on various reactions such as CO2RR, ORR, etc. Since August 2022, he has been serving as lead senior researcher at Şişecam Science, Technology, and Design Center.
Hussein Assadi graduated from the School of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, in 2011. Following his graduation, he pursued research opportunities in Japan. He initially joined Osaka University as a JSPS Fellow from 2013 to 2015. He continued his research at the National Institute for Materials Science from 2016 to 2019. Since 2022, Assadi has been employed as a research scientist at the Center for Emergent Matter Science, RIKEN. His current research focuses on exploring the electronic and thermal properties of mesoporous and complex materials, utilising a blend of ab initio and molecular dynamics techniques alongside modern data science tools. He has authored over 80 scientific publications spanning diverse areas such as exotic magnetism, thermoelectric energy conversion, rechargeable sodium and magnesium ion batteries, catalytic hydrogen production, and functional oxides.
