Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yozgatlıgil was born in 1975. He received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Middle East Technical University (METU). In 2005, he was awarded a Ph.D. in energy from Drexel University in the United States. He began his academic career as a faculty member at the University of Maryland and as a researcher at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

In 2007, he joined the Department of Mechanical Engineering at METU as a faculty member. He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2014 and to Full Professor in 2019. At METU, he served as Associate Dean of the Faculty of Engineering (2015–2016), Advisor to the Rector (2016–2019), and Vice President responsible for research, innovation, and internationalization (2019–2020). During the same period, he also served as Vice Chair of the METU Technopolis (Technokent) Board of Directors.

His research in combustion and engine technologies has been conducted at several renowned institutions where he served as a visiting researcher, including NASA Glenn Research Center, NIST, Argonne National Laboratory (USA), Japan Microgravity Center – JAMIC (Japan), and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS).

He has held several prominent administrative and advisory positions, including Chairperson of the Board and Director of the İzmir Biomedicine and Genome Center, and Board Member of both the METU MEMS Research Center and TÜBİTAK Space Technologies Research Institute (UZAY).

From 2020 to 2023, Prof. Dr. Yozgatlıgil served concurrently as Vice President of TÜBİTAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye) and President of the TÜBİTAK Marmara Research Center. During this time, he also served as Chair of the EUREKA Network, an international innovation platform comprising 47 member countries and headquartered in Brussels, until June 2023.

He held the post of Deputy Minister of Industry and Technology of the Republic of Türkiye from June 2023 to August 2024.

By Presidential Decree No. 2024/289 dated 16 August 2024, he was appointed Rector of Middle East Technical University. On 14 September 2024, by Presidential Decree No. 2024/316, he was also appointed as a Member of the Board of Directors of TÜBİTAK.

Elected to the Board of Directors of ASELSAN at the Extraordinary General Assembly held on 22 September 2023, Prof. Dr. Yozgatlıgil has also been serving as a Member of the Board of Directors of the Machinery and Chemical Industry Corporation (MKE) since January 2025. Additionally, he is a member of the Board of Directors of SAHA Istanbul , Türkiye’s Defence, Aerospace, and Space Cluster Association.

Prof. Dr. Ahmet Yozgatlıgil is married and has two children. He is fluent in English

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