Dr. Barçın Karakaş-Budak graduated from the Department Food Engineering at Ege University (İzmir) in 1997. Following three years of employment in the private sector, she completed her MSc studies at Middle East Technical University in 2003. She obtained her PhD degree from Akdeniz University in the same field where she has been employed as a faculty member since 2009. Dr. Karakaş-Budak also currently serves as the deputy manager at the Food Safety and Agricultural Research Facility of Akdeniz University. She has recently been awarded the title of Associate Professor. Dr. Karakaş-Budak has participated as principal investigator in a number of research projects, two of which have been funded by TUBITAK. As an expert in food science and technology, Dr. Karakas-Budak teaches courses such as Introduction to Food Engineering, Fermentation Technology and Molecular Biology and has a number of significant publications in the field.