About

Hi. I am Çağatay Kerem; the son of a modest, affectionate family. I was born in 1992 – I like it because it is an even number; and yet more, a leap year. I grew up in a lovely, but enormously expanding, industrial city: Ereğli, Zonguldak. Erdemir, coal, strawberry (Wonder which one I liked the most?). By the way, I am lucky that I lived at the seaside. I had a peaceful, happy childhood with the enthusiasm of seeking great adventures – to be honest, I was not daring. I took a close interest in books, maps (both scrutinizing closely and freehand drawing) and all kinds of sciences – but Astronomy was a bit more prominent. Fortunately, there were enough books and encyclopedias around and I had enough time and curiosity.

My small mind had thought we had been living in a perfectly modern sanitary community with magnificent technology, with cures of every single illness, with giant planes and intercontinental telephone lines, with the infinite scientific knowledge about life, the universe and everything; because we were livin' in the 1990s, on the verge of 2000. I just didn't know the answer is 42. Never mind. Then, we celebrated the year 2000, with the excitement of welcoming the new Millennium. I was somehow convinced that the 21^st century would start in 2001, rather than 2000; so I continued to live in the 20^th century the whole year while others were living in an unborn 21^st. As I grow, my life was broadened from my street to town, then to the real life. I understood the utopia was in my mind: OK, we could clone Dolly but still didn't have ultimate cure for cancer and AIDS; and there were wars, poverty and hate somewhere in the globe. Moreover, there was something called "politics". I wonder my optimism originates from the fact that I learned the Earth from the maps before the life experience, and was able to comprehend the beauty of vast universe before the bitter truths of the tiny Earth. I was lucky to have such family.

To continue the synopsis of my life, I faced two earthquakes of 1999, grew up, scuffled with my older sister, had our own computer and Internet connection – and then got heavily digitalized, adored Bilim Çocuk and next, Bilim ve Teknik. I graduated from Cumhuriyet Primary School in 2005, as the top student. I preferred my hometown to continue my education and enrolled at TED Kdz. Ereğli College with a scholarship. Discounting my childhood, I probably had my best years there, even though those years weren't crazy enough for some. Attended caricature practices for three years – and relaxing ceramics practices in the exam year, chatted with my friends, gained English skills, sweated while trying to give a presentation at Effective Presentation Techniques, created our own silly subculture, ate my best friend's peas at lunch (and one other's parsleys; even sometimes numerous extra puddings), chatted more, played tennis, stole(!) milk, tried to learn transverse flute, drew our cartoon strip with a friend, again chatted, and had sympathetic, excellent teachers (I hope my friends think so). Just like a film strip.

I graduated in 2009 as the top student, and placed 77th in ÖSS (Student Selection Examination) in Quantitive Composite 2 category. Since then, I set up a new life in Bilkent University with full scholarship. I like here.

I like taking photos, reading, Astronomy and other natural sciences, observing the skies and learning how to use my telescope, thinking about the System, our existence and some sort of philosophical stuff, walking, cycling and occasionally trying something different or a bit weird, like potato print. I can play bağlama and transverse flute but I am not in good train at the moment. Also I'm trying to improve my Spanish – pero no me gusta la conjugacion nada, ¡es muy dificil! I love pets, I had/have pets. I am an alien of sports played with a ball – maybe except tennis. I also regard myself as a tough environmentalist and an individual against over-consumerism. For a green planet, for polar bears and for our own sake. It's simple: Don't waste!

Special thanks to (with the chronologic order) the Mazda logo, the washing machines, Antares, a plate-clock, a missing screw and other silly things to provide my identity and spark my imagination long long ago (They know how.). I even don't need to mention my family, friends, teachers and so on; they deserve much more than a plain thanks here. Also thank you – if you could bear to read all this stuff.

To celebrate our existence.

16.07.2011

A rather dull update: Well, in the last 8 years, apparently I graduated... and began my graduate studies in Physics at Middle East Technical University in February 2015 in order to study astrophysics. I like here, too - so that just after I defended my master's thesis in February 2019, I began a PhD here in METU Physics!



Page created: 21 July 2011
Last updated: 25 May 2019