Nurcan Bac, Ph.D.

Biography

Dr. Nurcan Bac joined WCOE as the Senior Assoc. Academic Dean in September 2016. Before coming to TTU he was the Rector/President of Yeditepe University in Istanbul from Fall 2010 to Spring 2016. His faculty appointments were at Northeastern University (Boston, MA), Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI, Worcester, MA), Middle East Technical University (Ankara) and Yeditepe Univ. (Istanbul, Turkey). He received his BS, MS and PhD degrees in Chemical Engineering at Middle East Technical University (METU, Ankara Turkey) .

Dr. Bac was involved in NASA funded materials research (Zeolite Crystal Growth) and worked with Dr. Sacco from 1989 to 2004, at WPI and Northeastern University. He worked on  design of hardware and procedures for processing nanoporous materials on board the Space Shuttle and International Space Station (ISS). Dr. Bac held the position of Assoc. Director in charge of flight operations at one of  NASA's commercial space centers (Center for Advanced Microgravity Materials Processing) at Northeastern University in 1997.   Zeolite crystal growth experiments continued on board the shuttle and ISS through 2003.

A year after the tragic loss of Columbia Space Shuttle Columbia Dr. Bac accepted a faculty position in Turkey. He was appointed as the Rector/President of Yeditepe University which is a private university in Istanbul with a student body of 24,000 in 61 undergraduate, 67 MS and 30 PhD programs.

He taught undergraduate and graduate courses in chemical engineering at Northeastern, WPI, METU and Yeditepe. He supervised MS and PhD theses, and published papers and patents in areas related to zeolite crystal growth, encapsulation, antimicrobial zeolite composites, and proton exchange membrane fuel cells.

Research

• Zeolite Crystal Growth, Zeolites as hosts for fragrance
• Antimicrobial Zeolite Composites
• Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Personal Information

Curricular Vitae

Education

• Ph.D., Chemical Engineering Department, Middle East Technical University (METU), Ankara, Turkey.
• M.S., Chemical Engineering Department, METU, Ankara, Turkey
• B.S., Chemical Engineering Department, METU, Ankara, Turkey