Eastern Mediterranean University (EMU) Arts and Sciences Faculty, Physics and Chemistry Departments organized a series of event on the occasion of the Chemists Week. Within the scope of the events, EMU Chemistry Undergraduate Program graduate Dr. Abdurrahman Çağrı Ateşin from the University of Texas Rio Valley in the United States of America (USA) gave an online seminar titled “Organometallic Compounds in Catalysis: Mechanistic Studies and Catalyst Development”.
The seminar commenced with opening speeches delivered by EMU Arts and Sciences Faculty Dean Prof. Dr. Mehmet Ali Özarslan and EMU Physics and Chemistry Departments’ Chair Prof. Dr. İzzet Sakallı. Following the speeches, Dr. Ateşin shared his experience and knowledge about organometallic compounds and their mechanisms. Dr. Ateşin also advised students on scholarship opportunities in the USA at the seminar. At the end of the seminar, Dr. Ateşin answered questions from the participants.
Within the scope of the Chemists Week, EMU Arts and Sciences Faculty, Physics and Chemistry Departments’ academic staff member Prof. Dr. Osman Yılmaz made a presentation on internship training for chemistry students and, provided basic information on the issue. Moreover, Prof. Dr. Yılmaz answered the questions asked by the students.
As the closing event, the movie named 'Radioactive' of 2019, which is about the life of the world-famous scientist Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in two branches, was watched by the participants.
Who is Dr. Abdurrahman Çağrı Ateşin?
Born in 1976 in Beirut, Lebanon, Abdurrahman Çağrı Ateşin spent his early years in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and settled in Nicosia, Cyprus in 1987. After graduating from secondary and high school at Nicosia Turkish Maarif College, he completed the EMU Chemistry Undergraduate Program with a Computer Science minor program in 1997. In 1999, Dr. Ateşin completed EMU Chemistry graduate program under the supervision of Assist. Prof. Dr. Mehmet Garip and started his doctorate program at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey between 2000 and 2002. Dr. Ateşin continued his doctoral studies in 2003 by moving to the University of Rochester, New York, USA. Dr. Ateşin received his PhD in Inorganic/Organometallic Chemistry in 2008. He worked on the synthesis and catalytic activity of chiral iridium complexes under the supervision of Dr. Richard Eisenberg. Dr. Ateşin completed his post-doctoral studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI, USA. with Charles P. Casey between 2008 and 2009, and from 2009-2013 with Dr. Tobin J. Marks at Northwestern University, IL, USA. During his research with Dr. Casey, Dr. Ateşin studied the hydrogenation mechanism of benzaldehyde using an iron-based bifunctional catalyst. On the other hand, he worked with Dr. Marks to develop a tandem catalyst system to cleave etheric CO bonds.
Dr. Ateşin joined University of Texas-Pan American (UTPA), Edinburg, TX, USA as a Instructor in 2013. After the merger of UTPA and the University of Texas-Brownsville in 2015, he continued his studies as an Instructor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley and he promoted to Senior Instructor in 2021. Nowadays, he uses NMR and DFT calculations to study metal-catalyzed reactions in soil.