 So we're here in Thessaloniki at the Nanotechnology Conference, and hi, so who are you? Hi, I'm Fazilet Vardarsukan, professor of bioengineering. I'm currently director of a research center hosted by Sabancı University. The name is Sabancı University Nanotechnology Research Center, SUNUM, is the acronym. And we are very happy to be participating in this exciting event, Nanotechnology. This is my second time. I'm actually an invited speaker in Women in Nanotechnology's workshop that's being held today. At SUNUM, we do nanotechnology research, as the name implies, in four different thematic dimensions. Health, energy, food, water and agriculture, and defense in aerospace. So all of these sectors, the cross-section of these sectors with nanotechnology, nanomaterials, nanostructures, is within our interest. So how would you characterize the nanotechnology industry, the status it is, compared to the hype or in the past or in the future? How's it going to be in the future? Is it just growing? I think it is growing. It's a hidden actor because a lot of sectors are actually using nanotechnology without really realizing they're utilizing the benefits. And every day we see some new research and the tendency is the trend, is that it is going to be a generic technology of the next decade. There is a lot of potential at nano level in improving the materials. And improving materials will be the leader in improving energy efficiency, improving environmental concerns and so on. So there is a big potential. That's also a big concern in Turkey, right? Yeah. And the EU is talking a lot about doing green technology. Sustainability is a worldwide problem, so Turkey cannot be excluded. So that is one of our focus areas. But hidden in the term sustainability is improving energy usage, the efficiency of processes and so on. So that all goes through improving the materials we use. So is there a big traction with the students signing up for this field? Yes, there is a big demand in students. There's also a large interest in the research in academia. We have recently announced some vacancies for researchers and I was really surprised by the number of applicants from all over the world to our research center. All over the world? Yeah. Everybody wants to come to Istanbul to work? There were many, many applicants. There were something like 600 applicants for eight positions. So I was really very pleasantly surprised. And how many students total are in this group? We have 17 full-time researchers and 24 part-time researchers. And together with the post-doctorals and doctoral students, I think the total ends up to be about 100. So would you say that your university in Istanbul and Turkey is strong in this field? Sabanji University is very strong in this field. Nanotechnology is one of its thematic priorities. And the center was established in the year 2010 with a very large investment from Sabanji Foundation with an incredible farsightedness. And then it was co-financed by the Ministry of Development. And it was in 2017 it was selected to be one of the national infrastructures, research infrastructures. It is one of the four in the country. So it's a very prestigious center with a lot of hope. Our strategy is actually producing research results that create socio-economic added value. So in technology readiness levels four and six, that is what we are targeting. What is four and six? From the proof of concept in the lab should have been completed. So we take it from there and develop it to the prototype development stage so that industry can pick it up from there and further develop it to a marketable product. So did you say 2010? Yeah. So would you say you see results? Yeah. Or is it a lot of research that goes around among academics in different countries? Or does it actually go out and real people see the results? There are two spin-off companies. At the moment it may not be too much, but at least we are on the right track. We have 70 art patents and 130 projects. Some of them have been completed, some of them are currently going on. So it is a highly active center. We are now concentrating on pre-competitive research, creating a virtual platform with companies and academia. The name of the platform is Nanosys, Nanotechnological Systems. Currently we have 28 partners in this. And we are developing this nano cluster, this virtual cluster with different research pillars and sub-projects under it. It is a new program funded by the Turkish Research Council to VITAC. And we are very hopeful that it will cause a paradigm change with respect to academic and industrial partnerships. So we are here at the Nanotechnological Conference in Thessaloniki. Are you announcing partnerships happening here with the... Yes. We have a long-term collaboration with Nanonet. We actually held a workshop together in Istanbul last year. And as a result of this collaboration, we will be signing a Memorandum of Understanding, a joint partnership agreement tomorrow with Nanonet and Aristotle University. So it will be the beginning of a more closer collaboration with the two clusters or two institutions. Because all the universities working in nanotechnology in the world, it is good if they each can kind of like help each other out and not all working exactly the same thing, but trying to complement each other, right? Exactly, because resources are limited, are finite. So there are a number of infrastructures in our labs. There are some other equipment in other parts of the world. If we collaborate, we don't have to duplicate the infrastructures. And also the same is true for human resources and expertise. So if we can join forces, create synergies, two plus two will add up to five. And that's what we're aiming at. And not just participating conferences, but also sending researchers around from one place to the other? Yeah, exchange programs and also doing collaborative work together in either in EU projects or otherwise funded projects. We are also aiming for contracted research. So we've been doing some B2B meetings in this conference as well with companies. And we would like to provide our access to our facilities for collaborative work. Is there always stronger and stronger collaboration with the EU? Not just Greece, but... Well, Turkey is a part of the Horizon 2020 program. So we have access to EU funds. And we have some ongoing projects in Aeronet, in Marie Curie and in other programs, in flagship programs. But of course there's always space for developing it further. And what do you think about this conference here? That's a very exciting conference. A lot of parallel events were overwhelmed by the complexity of the program. But it is a good opportunity to see colleagues from different parts of the world and also meeting some companies.