Prof. HÜSEYİN AVNİ ÖKTEM

Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Avni Öktem was born in Ankara in 1963 and completed his primary and secondary education at TED Ankara College. Prof. Öktem received his bachelor's degree (Biology-1985) and master's degree (Biochemistry-1987) from the Middle East Technical University, and then his neurochemistry certificate and his doctorate (PhD.) degree in Biochemistry from the University of Szeged (Hungary) in 1990. Prof. Öktem continues his career at METU Biological Sciences Department and conducted postdoctoral research in the field of biotechnology at Texas Tech University. He has initiated various pioneering R&D activities in the fields of plant biotechnology and nanobiotechnology. He worked as a project coordinator or researcher in more than 100 national/international academic and industrial R&D projects and supervised 80 Master's/PhD theses. Authored 300 national and international journal/congress publications and book chapters. Prof. Öktem's IP portfolio includes 5 patents and 10 utility models. He has received various awards, including TÜSİAD/TTGV/TÜBİTAK 7th Technology Award in the field of nanobiotechnology, TTGV-Dr. Akın Çakmakçı's Most Successful Thesis and Establishment Award in University-Industry Collaboration and the Elginkan Foundation Turkish Culture Research and Technology Awards. He is one of the co-founders of METU-Nanotechnology-Nanobiotechnology Research Center and METU Central Lab Molecular Biology-Biotechnology unit. He serves as a board/committee member, jury member and consultant in public and private sector institutions and provides technology coaching/transfer services to various companies. He also served as chairman of the board of directors of the Turkish Biotechnology Association for nearly 16 years. Prof. Öktem is the founding partner of NANObiz Technology Inc., one of the first start-up companies in the field of nanobiotechnology in Turkey. Prof. Öktem served as the Founding Rector of Konya Food and Agriculture University between October 2014 and March 2017. Prof. Öktem is currently a faculty member at METU Department of Biological Sciences and serves as chairman of the board of directors and CTO of Nanobiz Teknooloji Inc. He conducts basic and applied research on biosensing technologies, homeland security, CBRNe, and agricultural biotechnology.