A Short History of the Department

In 1986, when Bilkent University admitted its first students, the mathematics department was positioned as a unit within the Faculty of Engineering. Three years later, at the end of 1989, it was officially decided to reposition the Mathematics Department as an independent department to conduct high-level research on an international scale and train mathematicians capable of conducting such research. Initially, only the graduate program was launched. The first undergraduate students joined the department in 1991. The mission of the mathematics department was defined as providing the necessary undergraduate foundation for students who would pursue graduate or doctoral studies in applied or pure mathematics. As Bilkent's student population grew, the department reached the required number and variety of faculty members needed to fulfill this mission.


Heads
of
Department of Mathematics

Bilkent University


Mefharet Kocatepe
Professor
Ph.D., Mathematics, University of Michigan, 1978
Functional analysis, nuclear spaces, K the spaces

Term: 1986-1989
Yavuz Nutku
Professor
Ph.D., Physics, The University of Chicago, 1969
General relativity, gravitational waves, instantons,
Monge-Ampere equations

Term: 1989-1991
Metin Gürses
Professor
Ph.D., Physics, Middle East Technical University, 1975
Mathematical physics, integrability of nonlinear PDEs,
higher-dimensional classical field theories


Term: 1991-1994
Mefharet Kocatepe
Professor
Ph.D., Mathematics, University of Michigan, 1978
Functional analysis, nuclear spaces, K the spaces

Term: 1994-2016
Fatihcan Atay
Professor
Ph.D., Applied Mathematics, Brown University, 1994
Dynamical systems, delay differential equations,
complex systems and networks, applied mathematics


Term: 2016-2024
Ali Sinan Sertöz
Professor
Ph.D., Mathematics, University of British Columbia, 1984
Algebraic geometry


Term: 2024-


Department of Mathematics
Bilkent University
06800 Ankara, Turkey
Phone: +90 (312) 290-1586 / 266-4377
Fax: +90 (312) 266-4579