İhsan Sabuncuoğlu

Prof. Sabuncuoglu earned his BS and MS in industrial engineering from Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey, in 1982 and 1984, respectively. He received his Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Wichita State University in the United States in 1990. He was recruited to work for Boeing, Pizza Hut, and the National Institute of Health during his stay in the USA.

Prof. Sabuncuoglu started his academic career at Wichita State University as a visiting assistant professor in 1989. In the fall of 1990, he joined the faculty of Bilkent University, the first private university in Turkey, and worked there as a full-time faculty member until 2013. During these years, he also held visiting positions at Carnegie Mellon University in the USA and at the Institute Français de Mécanique Avancée (IFMA) in France. His research interests include flexible manufacturing systems, production planning, real-time scheduling, cancer imaging, controlled pharmaceutics and simulation-based optimization. His research has been funded by TUBITAK (The Scientific and Research Council of Turkey) and EUREKA (The European-wide initiative to foster European competitiveness through cooperation among companies and research institutions in the field of advanced technologies).

In terms of scholarly work, he has produced more than a hundred scientific papers in international journals, numerous conference proceedings, and five edited books. According to The World’s Most Influential Scientists list published in the PLOS Biology scientific journal sorted by 22 departments and 176 science fields, Prof. Sabuncuoglu was ranked among the 196 academicians listed from Turkey, with 4,270 citations and an h-index of 34. He is on the editorial board of a numerous scientific journals in the fields of industrial engineering and operations research. He is a member of The Institute of Industrial Engineering, The Institute of Operations Research, The Management Science, The Simulation Society, The Council of Industrial Engineering (CIEADH) and other various professional and social committees.

Prof. Sabuncuoglu has considerable industrial/business experience in aerospace, automotive, logistics, and service systems. His research projects have been sponsored by a number of national and international companies. Throughout his 39-year career, he has provided consultancy to a wide variety of organizations. From 2008 to 2012, he also chaired the machinery and manufacturing technologies group in the Technology and Innovation Grant Programs Directorate at TÜBITAK (The Scientific and Research Council of Turkey).

Prof. Sabuncuoglu also has over 25 years of experience in various administrative positions. During his years at Bilkent University, he worked as chairman of various steering committees. He was also the head of the Industrial Engineering Department for 7 years. Under his leadership, the Industrial Engineering program became the first to receive ABET accreditation outside the United States. He established a university-industry collaboration center and served as its director until 2013. He helped establish many student clubs operating in related fields, including innovation, entrepreneurship, and branding.

In January 2013, following a request by the eleventh President of the Turkish Republic, Prof. Sabuncuoglu moved to the city of Kayseri, one of the largest industrial and commercial districts in the country, and started working as Rector of a university with an innovative concept: Abdullah Gul University. This initiative created the first hybrid public-private university model in the Turkish higher education system. Despite the institution’s young age, AGU is ranked 12^th out of 210 universities on the “Innovation and Entrepreneurship Turkish University Index.” According to URAP (University Ranking by Academic Performance), AGU was ranked 2^nd out of 70 universities established in the last 20 years in Turkey. Moreover, AGU was also ranked 1^st among state universities for three consecutive years between 2019 and 2021 “Student Satisfaction Survey in Turkey,” in the category of universities with which students are most satisfied. Prof. Sabuncuoglu was also awarded the Golden Performance Award for two years in succession. In addition, under his leadership, the institution has been ranked 1^st in the national index evaluating the best transition to on-line education in response to the current COVID-19 epidemic. His success is also internationally recognized. Considering the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the institution was ranked among the top 200 most successful universities in the world by Times Higher Education (THE) in for three consecutive years between 2019 and 2021. It also holds the distinction of being the youngest university on this list. Under his leadership, AGU became the knowledge partner of the Global Solutions Initiative (GSI) on education. GSI is one of the world's largest global collaborative organizations that produce solutions and policies for G20 countries for major global problems.

Prof. Sabuncuoglu has recently been conducting research in areas such as the future of universities and the transformation of higher education institutions. In particular, he has concentrated his studies on a new-generation university concept called "Third Generation Universities." This concept is based on the idea of blending the three university missions (education, research, and social impact) with the main emphasis on social impact. This new model is based on innovative approaches with a strong interdisciplinary focus.  In this context, he also works on the issues such as 21^st century skills for today’s students, Gen Z and the future of higher education, and higher education in the post-COVID-19 era.

Prof. Sabuncuoglu has organized more than 30 search conferences and workshops to develop a new model with the active contribution of 700+ people from all over the world, including those from universities, industries, NGOs, and public institutions. In addition, he has made more than 40 study visits across the globe (North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa) to benchmark some innovative higher education practices around the world. He has also organized and chaired a number of national and international conferences and symposiums in the fields of engineering and education science.

Prof. Sabuncuoglu is regularly invited to speak at many of the most renowned national and international summits in order to share his valuable experiences and opinions. These include the Times Higher Education Young Universities Summit (Orlando, USA, 2018), the Times Higher Education Emerging Economies Summit (Rabat, Morocco, 2018), the EDUCON ASIA Higher Education Summit (Singapore, 2017), the IAU International Conference (Accra, Ghana, 2017), the UIIN University-Industry Interaction Conference (London, England, 2018) and the Conference of Hanseatic League of Universities (Seoul, South Korea, 2019). He was invited to join the 4^th Global Solutions Summit, which was transformed into the 1^st Digital Global Solutions Summit due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Prof. Sabuncuoglu was asked to speak at the "Global Table on economy, employment, and education in the Digital Age,” discussing the question "What can the G20 do to shape a coherent, inclusive, and forward-looking educational system?” During that session, he shared AGU’s "4+4 Step-Plan towards Impactful and Equitable Education" in an online vision statement.

Prof. Sabuncuoglu was also a roundtable speaker at the 2020 ATU-Net Virtual University Presidents Forum with the theme “Embracing the New Norm: Leadership, Values and Skills.” During the event, which took place on July 15, 2020, he spoke on "Crises and Disruptions: The Need for a New Generation of HEIs," emphasizing the need to embrace change and to create new visions and mission statements for the necessary transformation of Higher Education to make it more relevant and equitable for all. The revised version of this speech was later used as the keynote to lead a panel discussion at the "Global Table on economy, employment, and education in the Digital Age” in December 2020. At another event, he spoke at the online British Council’s "Turkey Higher Education Talks" on August 28, 2020. This event explored the topic "Projections for the new academic year: How are universities preparing for the new academic year?" During the event, Prof. Sabuncuoglu presented his “blended education model” and measures to be implemented for the 2020/21 academic year, specifying that these changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic are not temporary patchwork, but, rather, significant steps towards AGU’s institutional development in the new era. Finally, he was invited to a roundtable discussion by Times Higher Education and Coursera on “The digital transformation of universities in Turkey: Equipping students with skills of tomorrow.” During this meeting, he shared his experiences and insights into the best practices in higher education.

Emphasizing that it is necessary to actively employ professional support units such as career, continuing education and alumni centers in universities, the new rector of TEDU believes in the importance of university students not only developing themselves technically in their fields, but also socially, culturally and intellectually throughout their education. In this context, he thinks that universities should be transformed from teaching institutions into learning environments or hubs. He also believes that generating knowledge and creating new technologies can only be done by a research ecosystem to be established with the business/industry world, NGOs and other stakeholders.

Prof. Sabuncuoglu is married with two children, enjoys playing tennis and swimming, as well as serving the community voluntarily whenever he gets the opportunity.