I was born in Frankfurt, Germany and was very interested in technology and reading books from a young age. My dad was particularly interested in video cameras and bought the first consumer Sony Betamax camera. I had the honour of using it from a very young age, at special occasions. On the other hand, computers would be a hobby I would spend most of my time with. My first computer was a Commodore 64 and programming quickly became an addiction. At the age of 13, I was programming in Basic and Assembly 6502.

My family decided to return back to Istanbul, Turkiye. I still continued programming but realized that life as a programmer is not very 'social' and that that a career as a telcommunication engineer will provide more opportunity to design systems and communicate with the customers. I studied at Uskudar Anadolu College (which has been renamed) for 4 years. My majors were mathematics and physics in preparation for my engineering degree. I took the university entrance exams and managed to get into the new Electronic Engineering program of Istanbul University. Had several internships in Turkey and was studying English in my spare time as I wanted to do my Masters in England or the US. I graduated after some hard study and won the Turkish Education Foundation (TEV) - British Council joint scholarship for my MSc study in the UK. After another year of hard study I received an MSc with Distinction in Satellite and Telecommunication Engineering from the University of Surrey. Although I wanted to do my PhD in the US, the CCSR convinced me to stay by offering the Centre for Satellite Engineering Research scholarship which provide funding for PhD research for EC nationals. I also won an Overseas Research Scholarship to cover the university overseas tuition fees, which meant that I had full funding for my PhD as well as living expenses. (more)