Türkü Özlüm ÇELİK © Katrin Boes / MPI-CBG
Türkü Özlüm ÇELİK has joined the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics as a new research group leader. She will be located at the Center for Systems Biology Dresden (CSBD), leading the “Mathematical Structures and Applications” research group. With her research group, Türkü Özlüm ÇELİK aims to reveal the mathematics of complex systems arising from nature. Their primary focus will be on algebraic and geometric perspectives, utilizing advanced computational mathematical tools, including computer algebra.
“While I have background in algebraic geometry and number theory by training, I got inspired to look at some applications of the mathematical objects in physics later in my career. Then I found that I truly like this aspect of mathematics that has interesting reflections in nature,” says Türkü. “With recent technological advancements, nature increasingly hints at underlying mathematical structures through data. Our goal is to extract the essence of these hints via a mathematical perspective.”
Welcome to the institute, Türkü!
Türkü studied mathematics in İstanbul and pursued her PhD at the Institut de recherche mathématique de Rennes (IRMAR) in France. In 2018, she moved to Leipzig as a postdoctoral fellow at the Max-Planck-Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences for about 3 years. Before she started as a Marie Skłodowska-Curie co-fund program research fellow at Koç University and Boğaziçi University in İstanbul from 2022 to 2024, she was an Alan Mekler Postdoctoral Fellow at the Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada.