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Derya Akkaynak

Derya Akkaynak
Derya Akkaynak
Derya Akkaynak
Derya Akkaynak
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289641
Yellin, Elron
Derya Akkaynak
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04/30/2015
Derya.jpg
Caption in Oceanus magazine, Vol. 51, no. 2, pg. 99:
Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering.
Derya Akkaynak is originally from the Aegean coast of Turkey, and her name means ocean in Turkish. She earned a bachelors degree in aerospace engineering from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara (2003) and a masters degree in aeronautics and astronautics from MIT (2005). After three years of consulting in financial services, she realized she wanted to devote her life to the sea and earned a Ph.D. in mechanical engineering and oceanography from the MIT-WHOI Joint Program (2014). Her thesis focused on the camouflage abilities of cephalopods such as cuttlefish and octopus, under the supervision of vision scientist Ruth Rosenholtz at MIT and cephalopod expert Roger Hanlon at the Marine Biological Laboratory. She is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Haifa in Israel, living in Eilat on the Red Sea and working on underwater imaging problems. She is a PADI Master Scuba Diver, an American Academy of Underwater Sciences scientific diver, and a certified ice diver. She also loves food, photography, and traveling. In her native Turkey, she campaigned to educate the media and fishermen on shark conservation to protect the ecosystem and the fishing industrys future. Her mentor for this article was Hugh Powell, science editor at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
Photo by Elron Yellin
© Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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