Good evening to all of our distinguished guests and
friends, to the banquet reception of the 13th
International Summer School on Biocomplexity,
Biodesign, and Bioinnovation! This has been a very
intellectually stimulating and thought-provoking week.
We’ve been asked to share a few of our thoughts on this
experience.
We would first like to thank our hosts, especially
Onur, who have welcomed us to the Kilyos campus
with its terrific views of the Black Sea.
We’ve been overwhelmed by the welcoming nature of
the Turkish people, and the willingness of everyone to
share the beauty of their country. We’ve been
enthralled with the rich history and greatly enjoyed
visiting the Dolmabache palace and the Blue Mosque.
Additionally, we’re very grateful to have had the chance
to see the most beautiful building ever built in human
history—the Hagia Sofia!
This is the second banquet already—at the last banquet,
we were fortunate to experience the beautiful and
uniquely-placed Bogazici University.
We’d like to thank everyone who has made this week a
unique experience.
First, we’d like to thank the organizing committee who
made this week possible. First and foremost, the Akay
family. Your love and passion for your home country is
infectious. You’ve inspired vacations for years to
come—and also inspired a new passion for many of us,
baklava! Your time and effort invested to continue this
event is most appreciated.
We would also like to thank Professor Ozcan Gulcur for
sharing his close ties to the Turkish Mafia with us and
providing such a memorable night at the Hagia Irene
with it’s terrific acoustics. Your years of wisdom in BME
(and insightful soccer comments) greatly contributed
to our experience.
Dr. Andrei Dragomir, thank you for interesting
conversations, documenting the entire week, and
keeping us all entertained!
Professors Hess and Guzman, we would like to thank
you for opening our eyes to the beauty of small things
sometimes overlooked, be it the incredibly efficient
motor proteins or the many applications of
nanoparticles. Like all of the other professors this week,
we’re appreciative of you exposing us to new tools and
ideas to help us to advance in our own research.
We would like to acknowledge the funding sources
who’ve made this week possible: the NSF, EMB,
University of Houston, Bogazici University, Arizona
State and IEEE.
Most importantly, we would like to thank you, our
fellow students. The talks have all been excellent and
it’s been fascinating to see the wide variety of ongoing
research. We’ve greatly enjoyed having constructive
discussions about science, be it others or our own ideas,
as well as just getting to know each other. Thanks to
everyone for being flexible, respectful, and engaged.
Let’s try to keep this open exchange of ideas ongoing
throughout our careers.
Finally, we would like to raise our glasses to Allyson,
who has made this entire Summer School as smooth
and organized event. Thank you for handling so much
behind the scenes and for making this Summer School
possible! Cheers.
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