I would like to welcome you to the new web-portal of Center for Energy, Environment and Economy Center (CEEE/EÇEM) at Özyeğin University. The specific mission of CEEE, the first Research and Development Center of the University, is to develop ideas and projects, in order to establish solutions and stra tegies for complicated, fundamental and applied problems involving energy, environment and eco nomy triage. The Center also aims to educate students, researchers and public at large. Since it was first established in 2009, the Center researchers have focused on several different fundamental and applied concepts as shown on the CEEE spiral (can be found on following pages). We have worked on a wide variety of projects, from nanoscale con cepts to complex building and urban scale applications, all the way to societal outreach.

In the links below, we outline several projects we completed, the theses written by our students, the scientific articles and books published, the awards and patents received, and the outreach efforts organized. We explain how we managed “thinking out of the box” as our team approach, with emphasis on the depth of disciplinary work, the extend of interdisciplinary studies, and the excitement of transdisciplinary efforts. To this end, we have established an extensive professional network, including not only the core members, but also many faculty members, architects, engineers, professionals, government employees and students in Turkey as well is in other countries. I thought, as one of the first members of the University and the Director of the Center, a compilation of our deca delong activities would be necessary. Several of our collaborators have also supported that idea.   

The CEEE spiral on upcoming pages was designed to present our mission and vision in graphical fashion. Our ultimate objective has been “being in harmony with nature” and it is depicted in the middle of our logo. This objective is circled with a ring marked as “people and society,” emphasizing our human-centered activities. The six different blue  green divisions shown at the outer perip hery of the spiral describe our scientific and social studies. The work we carried out in these six focus areas have been funded by different projects received from national and international agencies and the industry. All these studies have been original and impactful, and have resulted in several PhD and MS theses, scientific publications, graduation projects, activities, and lectures delivered in many conferences and workshops, as shown on the page “CEEE by Numbers”. Thanks to the work carried out with all researchers and partners, we are proud to have completed 14 PhD and 15 master theses, more than 60 journal articles and more than 75 conference articles.

During the past 10(+) years, the importance of ‘climate change’ and ‘energy efficiency’ has become more acceptable by academia and the society. However, to make meaningful strides in each one of these crucial areas we require coherent national and international efforts. From early on, we have emphasized that we needed to have a national push to achieve energy efficiency measures and more coherent legislative efforts to combat climate change. For these reasons, we refer to the white band of the CEEE logo as ’legislation.’ We were very happy to see that the Office of Energy Efficiency and Environment was establihed within the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, which significantly helped to publicize the cause on energy efficiency and climate change concerns. Naturally, CEEE has made significant contributions to increase these awareness efforts as well. As being among a few R&D centers which focus on these issues in Turkey, we have contributed to the 2009 Copenhagen and 2019 Madrid Climate Change (IPCC) Conferences. The Zero Istanbul Workshop that we organized in 2010 has been considered as a proof of our emphasis on climate change and its impact to the cities in the long run. We have also contributed to the so-called ‘horizontal’ studies defined in the National Energy Efficiency Action Plan, published by the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Sources in 2017.

CEEE has always pursued innovative strategies and developed solutions for challenging problems. The knowledgebase generated by individual members and by different project teams was continually transferred to the society via invited lectures, scientific journal papers, conferences presentations or public talks. The three core notions that constitute our name, i.e., energy, environment and economy, have always been considered in tandem in our studies. Of course, it is not always possible to find simple solutions to environmental problems the earth is facing and the possible calamities we anti cipate due to the climate crisis. That is the reason we have emphasized transdisciplinary approaches in most of our studies.

Our conscience has motivated us to carry out all of our projects in multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary fashion, as it isimpossible to understand and provide soltions to complex problems with disciplinary studies alone. Yet, we have always conducted focused disciplinary studies as well, particularly at nanoscales, as shown on the CEEE spiral. Multidisciplinary studies aim to bring researchers from different backgrounds together to work on complex problems. The richness of different disciplines and solution methodologies allow the researchers to find solutions which cannot be accomplished within single discipline. However, in these types of studies the researchers do not necessarily attempt to learn the inticacies of other disciplines. Interdisciplinary studies, on the other hand, require mastering more than one discipline. Towards this goal, researchers and practitioners work together to understand and appreciate the fundamental notions of separete disciplines. Engineers, architects, economists, social and researchers from all walks of life who contribute to such complicated problems need to internalize interdisciplinary concepts throughout their education. They conduct team works by thinking together, by brain storming and by practicing. This is possible only if they are willing to work outside their conventional disciplines and to build the future by continually learning new concepts. The rapid change of the world in the last fifty years is mostly due to such interdisciplinary studies.

These out-of-the-box approaches can further be tuned for the development of cutting-edge strategies towards complicated problems that concern the society at large. Many of such problems involve human behaviour or social aspects are difficult to confine to established norms. They are always in flux, always dynamic in nature and require adaptation. They are transdisciplinary by definition, and known as the so called “wicked” problems. For example, fighting against the reasons causing the climate change definitely requires a transdisciplinary approach, as it cannot be achieved without understanding of human or societal behavior.

In order to transfer scientific knowledge to the society in a steady and useful way and to make an impact we carried out disciplinary, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary studies in tandem.

During the last 10(+) years, CEEE has worked on many different types of such projects, from fundamental nano-scale concepts to large demonstration projects. With these efforts, we were able to complete 7 international and 13 national research grants. These studies brought in more than 3 million USD funding directly to the Center and to the University, and more than 4 million USD additional funds to Turkey. Six of these projects were for fundamental research on near-field radiative transfer at nanoscales. 11 projects were for energy efficiency demonstration and education activities. Our work at nanoscales and those on radiative transfer increased CEEE’s recognition not only in Turkey but also around the World.

The first project I personally received in 2009 was the Marie Curie Integration Project from the EU FP7 program; it was on energy harvesting at nanoscales. The book I co-authored, Thermal Radiation Heat Transfer, with John Howell and Robert Siegel, and later with Kyle Daun, is one of the best known books in the field. The awards we received based on our impact are listed in the Awards link.

Energy efficiency efforts at the Center has also brought several recognitions to us. Özyegin University SCOLA Building was designed and constructed within the framework of the EU FP7 NEED4B Project, resulting the most energy efficient academic building in Turkey. With this project, CEEE has won the first place award in the “Public Category” segment of the Efficiency Awards competition run by the Ministry of Industry and Technology. Later, we also won the Energy Efficiency competition organized jointly by the Turkish Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and the Istanbul Chamber of Industry. Another CEEE Project, EU.   FP7 BRICKER was implemented at the Adnan Menderes University Faculty of Medicine building in Aydin province of Turkey. It was aimed to achieve deep renovation to have the most energy efficient hospital building in Turkey. The concentrating solar power systems installed there is the largest of its kind in Turkey. Another CEEE project on behavioral energy (EU Horizon 2020 TRIBE) and the energy education project implemented in Southeast Anatolia (Islamic Development Bank NEXTGEN) are two other highly prestigious projects, as the probability of their funding was only around 2%. The NEXTGEN Project, and its precursor YENINESIL, were initiated in order to transfer the experience and knowledge we gained at CEEE to develop advanced energy efficiency and renewable energy curricula for Vocational and Technical High Schools. CEEE’s “Energy” and “Energy Efficiency” projects and demonstrations have helped Özyegin University being ranked 80th in the World in 2020 in the category of Accessible and Clean Energy by the Times Higher Education (THE) in their Impact Rankings.

We are also proud of our students who have cont ributed to both science and the society. They have received several awards during the last 10 plus years. 5 students who have worked at CEEE have established very successful companies. 7 students who received their PhD’s from CEEE currently work as faculty members in other universities in Turkey, Iraq and South Korea. One of our PhD students (Azadeh Didari) received the Raymond Viskanta Young Researcher Award from Elsevier. Two of our MS students (Ebru Tatar and Elif Gizem Tuncel) have been listed among the 24 finalists chosen out of more than 19,600 participants to Schneider’s competion.

In addition, CEEE studies have resulted in 3 international patents and have received several awards. Two of these patents have been developed within the framework of Istanbul Collaborative, together with two Sabancı University researchers (Ali Koşar and Kürşat Şendur). The second of these was registered in USA, EU and in Japan, making it one of the most prestigious triadic patents; there are less than 20 such triadic patents in Turkey. Meanwhile, all three patents have already received several awards in Turkey.

Of course, the success of a Center is never a coincidence, and requires continuous institutional involvement. Given that, I must acknow ledge the total support we received from Prof. Dr. Esra Gençtürk, the President of Özyeğin University. With the same token, I would like to thank to Prof. Dr. Erhan Erkut, the University’s first President, and to Prof. Dr. Şirin Tekinay, the first Vice President for Research, who contributed to our efforts signifi cantly during our early years.

I must sincerely thank to Mr. Hüsnü Özyeğin, Mr. Murat Özyeğin, and to Ayla Göksel, for their nonstop encouragement of our activities since our early days. Finally, I must thank to countless members of the Center and the University; we enjoyed working with each and every one of them. Among all, Dilek Saygı deserves a very special recognition as the Administrative Manager of CEEE; she has been the driving force behind all of our projects and activities.

I also need to explain why we called our book based on our activities as ‘Nano to Giga: Research and Applications.’ In our studies at small length scales, we were trying to understand near-field radiation transfer and tried to develop sensors and devices at nano-scales. Several of our funded projects were on these topics. On the other hand, with our energy efficiency efforts, we have built some of the most efficient buildings in Turkey and have educated so many students and researchers in campus and beyond to carry out similar studies by themselves. With these efforts, we believe we contributed to the reduction of carbon diokside (CO2) released to the atmosphere in the levels of giga-tonnes.

We we will continue giving hope and energy to future generations in the coming years.

Pınar Mengüç, Director, CEEE

April 2022