From a younger age, Doğa Kürkçüoğlu heard his father, a math instructor, say that studying needs to be about understanding and real-world purposes relatively than memorization. Nevertheless it wasn’t till he started exploring MIT OpenCourseWare in 2004 that Kürkçüoğlu skilled what it means to really perceive advanced subject material.
“MIT professors confirmed me how to take a look at an idea from totally different angles that I hadn’t earlier than, and that helped me internalize info,” says Kürkçüoğlu, who turned to MIT OpenCourseWare to complement what he was studying as an undergraduate learning physics. “As soon as I understood strategies and ideas, I used to be capable of apply them in numerous disciplines. Even now, there are numerous equations I don’t have memorized precisely, however as a result of I perceive the underlying concepts, I can derive them myself in only a few minutes.”
Although there was a degree in his life when pals and classmates thought he would possibly pursue music, Kürkçüoğlu — a talented violinist who at the moment performs in a jazz band on the aspect — at all times had a ardour for math and physics and was decided to study the whole lot he may to pursue the profession he imagined for himself.
“Even once I was 4 or 5 years outdated, if somebody requested me, ‘what do you wish to be if you develop up?’ I might say a scientist or mathematician,” says Kürkçüoğlu, who’s now a workers scientist at Fermilab within the Superconducting Quantum Supplies and Techniques Heart. Fermilab is the U.S. Division of Vitality laboratory for particle physics and accelerator analysis. “I really feel fortunate that I truly get to do the job I imagined as a bit of child,” Kürkçüoğlu says.
OpenCourseWare and different assets from MIT Open Studying — together with programs, lectures, written guides, and downside units — performed an essential position in Kürkçüoğlu’s studying journey and profession. He turned to those open academic assets all through his undergraduate research at Marmara College in Turkey. When he accomplished his diploma in 2008, Kürkçüoğlu set his sights on a PhD. He says he felt able to dive proper into doctoral-level analysis because of so many MIT OpenCourseWare lectures, programs, and examine guides. He began a PhD program at Georgia Tech, the place his analysis targeted on theoretical condensed matter physics with ultra-cold atoms.
“With out OpenCourseWare, I couldn’t have performed that,” he says, including that he considers himself “an honorary MIT graduate.”
Memorable programs embody particle physics with Iain W. Stewart, the Otto (1939) and Jane Morningstar Professorship in Science Professor of Physics and director of the Heart for Theoretical Physics; and Statistical Mechanics of Fields with Mehran Kardar, professor of physics. Studying from Kardar felt particularly apt, as a result of Kürkçüoğlu’s undergraduate advisor, Nihat Berker, was Kardar’s PhD advisor. Berker can also be emeritus professor of physics at MIT.
As soon as he accomplished his PhD in 2015, Kürkçüoğlu hung out as an assistant professor at Georgia Southern College and a postdoc at Los Alamos Nationwide Laboratory. He joined Fermilab in 2020. There, he works on quantum idea and quantum algorithms. He enjoys the research-focused environment of a nationwide laboratory, the place groups of scientists are working towards tangible objectives.
When he was educating, although, he inspired his college students to take a look at Open Studying assets.
“I might inform them, to begin with, to have enjoyable. Studying needs to be enjoyable — one other concept that my father at all times inspired as a math instructor. With OpenCourseWare, you may get a brand new perspective on one thing you already learn about, or open a course that may increase your horizons,” Kürkçüoğlu says. “Relying on the place you begin, it’d take you an hour, per week, or a month to completely perceive one thing. When you perceive, it’s yours. It’s a totally different type of pleasure to really, really perceive.”
