Hikmet Geckil is a Turkish academic who received PhD degree in Molecular Biology at Illinois Institute of Technology (Chicago, IL). A one year postdoctoral study at Ben Gurion University and a Fulbright Fellowship for 6 months at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are among his science endeavors. His research is in the area of genetic engineering. His current affiliation is with the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Inonu University.

Research in Geckil’s Genetic Engineering Laboratory is primarily based on the function of Vitreoscilla hemoglobin (VHb), the first prokaryotic hemoglobin. Using VHb, Geckil’s group engineered various bacteria for the purpose of producing industrially important products ranging from microbial fuels butanediol, acetoin to drugs used in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson disease (e.g., dopa, dopamine) and to asparaginase, an enzyme used in cancer chemotherapy. One of the recent endeavors of his laboratory is to dissect the anatomy of the SARS-CoV-2 Spike (S) protein and its physiological effects on cells. For this aim, his laboratory is studying the expression of S and its effect on cell physiology, using recombinant shuttle vectors created in his laboratory.

Geckil has published in the areas of biochemistry, biomedicine, and biotechnology, and has over 40 peer-reviewed publications. He is the Editor of “Virolojinin Prensipleri (Cilt I): Moleküler Biyoloji” and Co-Editor of “Virolojinin Prensipleri (Cilt II): Patogenez ve Kontrol“, the Turkish version of Principles of Virology (Volume I): Molecular Biology and Principles of Virology (Volume II): Patogenesis and Control, respectively. He is also the lead editor of the Moleküler Hücre Biyolojisi, the Turkish version of the highly acclaimed textbook “Molecular Cell Biology” by Harvey Lodish et al. He is also the editor of Biyokimya, the Turkish translated version of “Instant Notes in Biochemistry” by David Hames and Nigel Hooper. Dr. Geckil is also the author of two volume Biyokimya coursebook: Biyokimya I and Biyokimya II. He has serving on the editorial board of several international scientific journals, including the Biotechnology Journal (Wiley) and the Turkish Journal of Biology (TUBITAK).

Z. Hammouch received her Master’s in Applied Mathematics and her PhD in Numerical Analysis and Fluid Mechanics from the University of Picardie Jules Verne Amiens France.
She defended her university habilitation at the University Moulay Ismail, Morocco. She is currently full Professor at the Ecole Normale Supérieure of the University Moulay Ismail Meknès, Researcher at the Division of Applied Mathematics of Thu Dau Mot University Binh Duong in Vietnam and Consultant at the Department of Medical Research, China Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan and Kyung Hee University of South Korea.
She is a Member of the European Women in Mathematics (EWM) Association, a Member of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) and The CRIMS of African Union of Mathematics.
She has published more than 100 articles and chapters in indexed journals and reputable books (Springer, Elsevier,…). She is a member of editorial boards of several international indexed journals (Scopus, WOS,…). Her research interests include: Numerical analysis, Biomathematics, Population dynamics, Fractional calculus and Fluid mechanics.

She completed her BSc, MSc and PhD degrees at Yıldız Technical University, Department of Industrial Engineering, and MBA degree at Istanbul Technical University, Department of Business Administration. Alev Taşkın, who conducted her postdoctoral research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Zaragoza Logistics Center, has been as Visiting Professor in the field of Data Analytics at Hochschule Harz. She has been working at Yıldız Technical University, Department of Industrial Engineering since 2001, and continues her academic career with the title of Professor as of 2017. She has over a hundred articles, including journals listed in the SCI/SSCI indexes, and many national and international book chapters, congress and conference proceedings. She has many national/international projects in different sectors, together with the leadership of the AIBOSS research group, where she carries out training and project studies on artificial intelligence based optimization studies.