Özgür B. Akan was born in Ankara, Turkey.
After high school education in Ankara Fen Lisesi (Ankara Science High School), he received the
B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in electrical and electronics engineering from Bilkent
University and Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey, in June 1999
and January 2002, respectively. He received the Ph.D. degree in electrical and computer
engineering from the Broadband and Wireless Networking Laboratory,
School of
Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, in
May 2004.
He is currently Associate Professor with the Department of Electrical and
Electronics Engineering, Middle East Technical University and the Director of Next generation Wireless Communications Laboratory (NWCL).
His current research interests are in next-generation wireless networks, biologically-inspired communications, nano-scale and molecular communications, cognitive radio networks and dynamic spectrum management, sensor networks, satellite and deep space communications, signal processing for wireless communication, multimedia communications, and network information theory.
Dr. Akan is an Associate Editor for IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology and Editor for ACM/Springer Wireless Networks (WINET) Journal. He served as an Area Editor for AD HOC Networks Journal (Elsevier) (between 2004-2008), as a Guest Editor for Special Issue on Mobile Video in Signal Processing: Image Communication Journal (Elsevier), for Special Issue on Wireless Multimedia Sensor Networks in Computer Networks Journal (Elsevier), for Special Issue on Bio-Inspired Computing and Communication in Wireless Ad Hoc And Sensor Networks, in AD HOC Networks Journal (Elsevier), for Special Issue on Bio-inspired Networks in Springer Transactions of Computational Systems Biology (TCSB). He has served as the General Co-Chair for The Third International Conference on Bio-Inspired Models of Network, Information, and Computing Systems (ICST/IEEE BIONETICS 2008), the European Vice Chair for The Second International Conference on Nano-Networks (ICST/ACM Nano-Net 2007), an International Vice Chair for IEEE INFOCOM 2006, and in organizing committees and technical program committees of many other international conferences on communications and networking. He is the Publications Committee Vice Chair for ICST (Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering), and has served as the Vice President for IEEE Communications Society - Turkey Section. He is an IEEE Senior Member (Communications Society) , and a member of ACM.
Dr. Akan received the Turkish Academy of Sciences Distinguished Young Scientist Award 2008 (TUBA-GEBIP), the 2006 Parlar Foundation Research Encouragement Award for his research in bio-inspired communication techniques for wireless communication networks, the 2006 Editor of the Year Award from AD HOC Networks (Elsevier) Journal, the Best Paper Award in IEEE ISCN 2006, the TUBITAK-Career Award in 2005, and the 2003 Researcher of the Year Award in Broadband and Wireless Networking Laboratory, School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology.
