Where I studied, and the awards and fellowships I picked up along the way.

Education⌗

  • Ph.D., Electrical and Computer Engineering
    Yale University · New Haven, CT · Aug 2023 – Present
    Advisor: Dionysis Kalogerias
    Dissertation: Test-Time Black-Box Control of LLMs for Safety and Alignment

  • M.S., Electrical and Electronics Engineering
    Bilkent University · Ankara, Turkey · 2020 – 2023
    Advisor: Suleyman S. Kozat
    Thesis: Novel Deep RL Algorithms for Continuous Control

  • B.S., Electrical and Electronics Engineering
    Bilkent University · Ankara, Turkey · 2016 – 2020

Honors and Awards⌗

  • Best Reviewer · ICML · 2026

  • PhD Fellowship · Yale University · 2023
    Full tuition waiver and stipend during the first year of Ph.D.

  • PhD Fellowship · University of California, San Diego · 2023
    First-year fellowship awarded to a selected group of Ph.D. applicants

  • Graduate Fellowship · Türk Telekom & Information and Communication Technologies Authority · 2022
    5G and Beyond Joint Graduate Support Programme; merit-based monthly stipend during M.Sc.

  • Graduate Fellowship · Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey · 2021
    Directorate of Science Fellowships and Grant Programmes; merit-based monthly stipend and accommodation support during M.Sc.

  • Scholarship and Governmental Grant · Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey · 2020
    Directorate of Research Support Programs; merit-based grant of up to $293K, awarded to 321 teams among 1,785 competitors

  • Merit-Based Scholarship · Bilkent University · 2020
    Full tuition waiver and stipend during M.Sc.

  • Merit-Based Scholarship · Bilkent University · 2016
    Tuition waiver during B.Sc.