About Us

Prof. Levent Kurnaz was born in Istanbul. He received his B.S. Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering in 1988, his M.S. Degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and his B.S. Degree in Physics in 1990 from Bogazici University, his M.S. Degree in Physics in 1991 and his Ph.D. Degree in Physics in 1994 from University of Pittsburgh. Between 1995 and 1997 he worked as a research associate at Department of Chemistry in Tulane University. In 1997 he joined Bogazici University Physics Department as an assistant professor. Since he has been a Professor of Physics at Bogazici University. In 2014 he has been appointed as the Director of the Center for Climate Change and Policy Studies at Bogazici University. Prof. Kurnaz has 1 international book and 32 scientific papers in international journals. He has been an advisor to 27 M.S. and 9 Ph.D. thesis ongoing and finished. He is married with two children.

Having graduated from Robert College in 1988, Zeynep Başaran, received her B.A. in Economics and English, Cum Laude and with Honors in English, from Bryn Mawr College in 1992. She received her M.A. in Advertising from the University of Texas at Austin in 1996. She worked in strategic planning and business development at the BBDO Group between 1992-1999. Between 1999 and 2010, she worked at Manajans/ JWT, where she was strategy planning director, VP strategic planning, and CEO, successively. During 2007-2009, she was concurrently the country manager of Diamond Trading Company (formerly De Beers). She gained  experience as an angel investor and within the start-up community between 2010-2013, after which she launched her consultancy business, focusing on brand positioning, creative strategy, campaign management, agency-client relations, and project management. She is an instructor at Bilgi University Marka Okulu (since 2011), Koç University (since 2013), and IMA (since 2016).

Ebru Debbağ graduated from Robert College in 1987 and earned a BSc from İstanbul Technical University as a Textile Engineer in 1991. Ebru has also completed MBA Certification Programme in Istanbul University in 1992 before she joined Orta Anadolu where she worked from 1992 to 2016 as a director responsible for sales, marketing, PD and R&D.
Ebru has been engaged in the sustainable transformation of Orta Anadolu since 2001 and has designed multiple global projects to develop a denim academy as well as to present the potential of Turkey as a denim and jeans sourcing hub. She has led BCI introduction in Turkey as well as designing and managing global sales and marketing expansion with an approach to redefine a B2B operation to engage as B2H ( Business to Human) Ebru has been an advocate of story-telling and has also worked in partnership with UN and UNICEF to present denim as a force of good for the people and the planet.
The Singularity University Executive Programme she has taken in 2016 has led her to set up her consultancy platform; Indigofriends where she strives to scale practices where fashion can regenerate the earth as well as societies.
Ebru has reached out to over 1000 participants with her Climate Crisis in My Wardrobe training sessions. She is also a co-founder at Permaturk Foundation which engages in permaculture practices as a lifestyle for all, targeting to educate,inform and transform.
Ebru is also a licensed yoga instructor and believes that we have the power and the potential to make a change everyday.

Aytaç Paçal completed his undergraduate studies in Physics at Boğaziçi University in 2015 after graduating from Şişli Anatolian High School in 2010.  He received M.Sc. degree in Computational Science and Engineering at Boğaziçi University. He is currently a researcher PhD student at DLR German Aerospace Center.

He believes the idea that the scientific knowledge should be simplified to be conveyed to people, otherwise scientific facts will not be enough to save the future of the Earth. With this idea in mind, he created a YouTube channel to create and publish videos about commonly misunderstood scientific topics.

In his graduate study, Mr. Paçal worked on the visualization of climate change data in Turkey and MENA (the Middle East and North Africa) region and analyzed the return periods of extreme weather events, under the supervision of Prof. M. Levent Kurnaz.

Burcu Yesil graduated from American Robert College in 2011 and finished the BA in Political Science and International Relations at Bogazici University in 2016. Burcu continued higher education in Scotland, where she acquired an MSc degree in Global Environmental Politics at the University of Edinburgh. Writing a master’s thesis on “the sustainable consumption of textiles in Turkey”, Burcu started working at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Istanbul as the Corporate Partnerships Officer.

Believing that for transitioning towards a healthy, sustainable planet and society; the humanity needs to work in cooperation on all levels, Burcu actively volunteers at various environmental charities in Istanbul. She is also among the founders of the Zero Waste Platform (Sıfır Çöp Platformu) in Turkey which aims to become an umbrella civil society organisation for those who wish to question the way we consume today make change for sustainable consumption and production methods.

After graduating from Kocaeli Science High School in 2016, Özge Tuğralı completed her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration at Boğaziçi University in 2021. She continues her master’s degree in Socio-Ecological Sustainability concentration area at Boğaziçi University Institute of Environmental Sciences.

Özge has internship experience in the Marketing and Corporate Communication departments of corporate companies, and volunteering experience in a social enterprise and TOG and TEGV. She wants to shape her career on the concept of “sustainability”.

Yunus Kaan Arslan, continues his undergraduate education in Electrical and Electronics Engineering at Boğaziçi University, after graduating from İzmir Private Tevfik Fikret High School in 2016.

He has the opportunity to work in areas such as business development, projects, software services and consultancy in the renewable energy sector since 2020. Mr. Arslan is building his career on renewable energy, energy efficiency and sustainable development.