Education

• 2011, PhD in Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark

• 2005, MSc in Civil & Environmental Engineering, North  Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

• 2002, BS (Honor student) in Environmental Engineering , Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey (acc. by ABET)

• 2002, Minor in German Language Education, Department of Foreign Languages, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

 

Professional Background & Internships

• 2020-present, Food Microbiology Laboratory, Wageningen University, Netherlands

• 2017-present,  Creator of MICRO-C-OMICS:comics, animation and games about microbial life

• 2015-2017, Scientist, Institute of Environmental Engineering, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

• 2013- 2013, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of Michigan, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

• 2011-2012, Postdoctoral Researcher, Technical University of Denmark, Department of Environmental Engineering, Lyngby, Denmark

• 2008-2011, PhD Researcher, Technical University of Denmark, Department of Environmental Engineering, Lyngby, Denmark

• 2007-2008, Research Assistant, Technical University of Denmark, Department of Environmental Engineering, Lyngby, Denmark

• 2003-2007, Graduate Research Assistant, North Carolina State University, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Raleigh, NC, USA

• Jan-May 2003, National Coordinator of  “Eco-Schools Project” and “Learning About Forests Project” at the Foundation for Environmental Education in Turkey

• Summer 2001, Intern at Thames Water, Izmit, Turkey.

• Summer 2000, Lab intern (Anaerobic Toxicity Assays), METU

 

Honors & Awards

• Jury and Public Awards for the short science movie “Quorum Sensing” at Exposure:Science Film Hackathon, Lausanne, Switzerland, 2016

• Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP) – NSF CAREER Grant Application Workshop Participation Grant to be held at AEESP Conference, 2013

• Travel Grant at the amount of 22600 DKK (3700 US $) by Lundbeck Foundation to attend ISME conference, 2010

• Graduate Research Assistantship by Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering Department, North Carolina State University, 2003- 2006.

• Young Scientist Grant, Turkish American Scientists and Scholars Association (TASSA), 2006

• US National Dean’s List 2005

• Chi Epsilon, Civil Engineering Honor Society

• Third Place in Poster Presentation in 84th Annual NC AWWA/WEA Conference, November 14-17, 2004, Charlotte ,NC

 

Publications

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1. Gulez, G. Life in Microbial Communities (to be published in the book Co:exist by Utopiana, MētisPresses Geneva)

2. Kreft, J. and Gulez, G. (2019) Microbiological Meaning from Mathematical Models. Microbiologist, June 2019

3. Gulez, G., and Battin, T. Effect of periodic nutrient pulse on the spatial organization of individual cells in nascent aquatic biofilms (in preparation)

4. Gulez, G., Altintas, A., Fazli, M., Dechesne, A., Workman, C.T., Tolker-Nielsen, T., and Smets, B.F. (2014) Colony morphology and transcriptome profiling of  Pseudomonas putida KT2440 and its mutants deficient in alginate or all EPS synthesis under controlled matric potentials, MicrobiologyOpen, Vol. 3(4), pg.457-469

5. Gulez, G., Dechesne, A., Workman, C., and Smets, B.F (2012) Transcriptome dynamics of Pseudomonas putida KT2440 under water stress. Applied & Environmental Microbiology, Vol.78, No. 3, pg.676-683

6. Gulez, G., Dechesne, A., and Smets, B.F (2010) The Pressurized Porous Surface Model: An improved tool to study bacterial behavior under a wide range of environmentally relevant matric potentials. J. Microbiol.Meth. Vol. 82, No.3, 324-326

7. Dechesne, A., Wang,G., Gulez,G., Or,D., and Smets, B.F. (2010). Hydration controlled bacterial motility and dispersal on surfaces, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 107(32), 14369-14372

8. Gulez, G. and F. L. de los Reyes III (2009), Multiple approaches to assess filamentous bacterial growth in activated sludge under different carbon source conditions. Journal of Applied Microbiology, Vol.106, No.2 pg.682-691

9. Dechesne, A., Or, D., Gulez, G., and Smets, B. (2008) The Porous Surface Model: a novel experimental system for online quantitative observation of microbial processes under unsaturated conditions, Applied & Environmental Microbiology, Vol.74, No.16, pg.5195-5200

10. Gulez, G. and F. L. de los Reyes III (2005), What Do Filaments Like to Eat? Using DGGE to Determine the Effects of Carbon Source and Seed Sludge on Filamentous Growth, 78th Water Environment Federation Annual Conference and Exposition (WEFTEC 2005), October 2-6, Washington D.C.,

11. Gulez, G. and F. L. de los Reyes III (2005), “Effect of Carbon Sources on Filamentous Growth in Activated Sludge Systems”, International Water Association, Microbial Population Dynamics in Biological Wastewater Treatment, July 2005,Australia,

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Others

1. Editing/Translating: “Litter and Waste”, “Water”, “Energy”, “Waste Minimization and Recovery”, and “Environmental Assessment” Booklets, funded by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Environment Facility / Small Grant Programme (GEF/SGP) , 2003

2. Compiling/Translating: “Learning about Forests Project Guide” and “Learning about Forests Activity Guide” Booklets, funded by UNDP-GEF/SGP, 2003

 

Presentations (including peer reviewed published conference abstracts)

1. Invited Talk - Sociomicrobiology “Sculpting the Everyday / Biotopes”, an interdisciplinary seminar series by the Utopiana, Geneva, Switzerland, 27 April 2018

2. Invited Talk, Biotechnology Program Seminars, May 12, 2015, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

3. Oral Presentation, Environmental Science Institute, June 24,  2014,  Bogazici University, Istanbul, Turkey,

4. Poster Presentation, 14th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology, August 19-24, 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark

5. Poster Presentation, Signals and Space: Spatio-temporal pattern in simple bio-systems, August 25-27, 2011, Center for Models of Life, Niels Bohr Institute, Copenhagen

6. Oral Presentation, Danish Microbiological Society Symposium, November, 2010

7. Poster Presentation, 13th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology, August 22-27, 2010, Seattle, WA, USA

8. Oral Presentation, Raisebio International Symposium on Microbial Contaminant Degradation at Biogeochemical Interfaces, March 2-4, 2010, Leipzig, Germany

9. Oral Presentation, CREAM International Symposium on Microbial Degradation of Soil Pollutants: Processes and Impacts, November 3-4, 2009, Copenhagen, Denmark

10. Poster Presentation, FEMS 2009. 3rd Congress of European Microbiologists, 2009, Gothenburg, Sweden

11. Poster Presentation, 12th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology (ISME-12) - Microbial Diversity - Sustaining the Blue Planet, August 2008, Cairns, Australia

12. Poster Presentation, ASM 108th General Meeting, June 2008, Boston, USA.

13. Poster Presentations, Turkish American Scientists and Scholars Association (TASSA) 2nd Annual Conference, March 25-26, 2006, Philadelphia, PA, USA

14. Poster Presentation, NC Branch of American Society for Microbiology, October 7, 2005, Raleigh, NC, USA

15. Oral Presentation, 78th Water Environment Federation Annual Conference and Exposition WEFTEC 2005, Washington DC, USA

16. Poster Presentation, International Water Association, Microbial Population Dynamics, July 2005, Gold Coast, Australia

17. Poster Presentation, 84th Annual NC AWWA/WEA Conference, November 14-17, 2004, Charlotte, NC, USA

18. Poster Presentation in WREE Spring Symposium in May 2004, NCSU, Raleigh, NC, USA

 

Service

• Official reviewer for Biofilms & Microbiome-Nature Partner Journal, MicrobiologyOpen, Environmental Monitoring & Assessment

• Unofficial reviewer for many papers as part of training for Environmental Microbiology, Applied and Environmental Microbiology, Environmental Science & Technology, PlosOne, etc

.

Teaching & Supervision

• Lectures, coordination, supervision in multiple courses at Food Microbiology, Wageningen University, 2020-present 

• Thesis  and internship supervision DTU, EPFL, WUR

• Lectures in multidisciplinary course, EPFL

• Lectures and tutorials in wastewater treatment course, DTU

 

Scientific Storytelling  Activities

• MICRO-C-OMICS, a comic series about microbial life, with occasional short animations

• Adventures of Zeze the soil bacterium, a short comic story based on my PhD thesis, 2018

• Public screening of short science movies (participated with the movie “Quorum Sensing”, 7 December 2016, Cinema Pully, Switzerland

• Exposure: Science Film Hackathon (scientific short film-making), 2-5 December 2016, UNIL-EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland

• Member of The Catalyst: Scientific Theater Improvisation, 2015-2016

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Leadership  & Organizational  Tasks

• Coordinator of Individual-based Modeling Course (iDynoMICS), Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Summer 2008

• Chair of Water Resources and Environmental Engineering Symposium Organization Committee, Spring 2006

• Coordinator of Eco-Schools National Training Seminar Organization, 28 February – 1 March. 2003, Istanbul, Turkey

• Vice President of METU Bird Watching Society, 2003

• Treasurer of METU Bird Watching Society, 2002

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Professional Memberships

• Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP)

• International Society for Microbial Ecology (ISME)

• American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

• Air & Waste Management Association (AWMA)

• American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)

• Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM)

• Water Environment Federation (WEF)

• American Society for Microbiology NC Chapter (ASM-NC)

• NC American Water Works Association/Water Environment Federation (AWWA/WEA)

• Turkish American Scientists and Scholars Association (TASSA)

 

Non- Professional Environmental Training

• Important Bird Areas Training Program, World Wildlife Found (WWF)-Turkey, Dicle University and Diyarbakir Environment Volunteers, 1-4 October 2002, Diyarbakir, Turkey

• Environmental Education Camp, The Scientific & Technological Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK), Karadeniz Technical University and Ministry of Forestry, August 2002, Rize, Turkey

• Marine Turtles Conservation Project, WWF-Turkey, 1-15 July 2002, Antalya, Turkey

• Environmental Education Camp, TUBITAK, Akdeniz University and Ministry of Forestry, July 2001, Antalya, Turkey

• Nature Conservation & Public Awareness Exchange Program, WWF-Turkey and Naturschutzjugend (Germany), 2001, Turkey

• Environmental Policy Exchange program, organized by WWF-Turkey and Naturschutzjugend (Germany) to observe the environmental policies, and problems and solutions of Germany, 2000, Germany

• Contamination in RAMSAR Areas: Lake Burdur Exchange Program, Naturschutzjugend (Germany), 1999, Burdur, Turkey

 

Interests

• Member of Turkish Student Association at NCSU, 2003-2006.

• Member of METU Bird Watching Society, 2001-2003

• Member of the METU Turkish Folklore Society (dancing) 1997-2003

• Member of   the METU Amateur Astronomy Club, 1998

• Member of the METU Musical Society (singing, dancing, acting), 1998-2000

• Performing jazz classes from jazz singer Yildiz Ibrahimova (2000-2003)

• 3rd place in “Beatles” singing competition organized by British Council

• Others: Hiking, rock climbing, basketball, outdoor adventures, contact improvisation dance, motion boxing, crossfit, sci-fi, philosophy, comics, beat generation, neuroscience, singing, playing ukele, percussion