Ph.D. | Scientist (biotechnology) | Writer & Editor (life sciences) |
ABOUT ME
My career goal is to contribute to the acceleration and further development of biotechnological progress by pursuing my scientist/researcher career. It’s good to do research and make our world a better place with innovations and developments in biotechnology and life sciences.
In my career, I’ve approached every challenge with enthusiasm, creativity, and ceaseless desire to achieve success. This passion and drive have paved the way to countless opportunities, unique experiences and exceptional relationships. If you’re interested in learning more about me, keep reading or get in touch.
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, USAK UNIVERSITY, USAK, TURKEY
Oct 2015 - Jun 2020
Chemical Engineering Department
Co-Head of the Chemical Engineering Department
Teaching: Biotechnology, Enzyme Engineering, Enzyme Kinetics, Biomaterials, Biochemical Processes, Biosorption, Chemical & Biochemical Reactor Design, Engineering Process Design, Differential Equations, Water Technology, Nanotechnology, Quality Management, Environmental Pollution and Control, Instrumental Analysis, and various Laboratory courses.
Developed / revised programs & curricula
Projects that I've involved:
Heavy metal (Pb, Cr, As) removal through bacterial isolates & adsorbents.
Development of a glucose biosensor.
Synthesis & characterization of novel nanomaterials.
Removal of antibiotics and pharmaceuticals with microorganisms & nanoadsorbents.
International Affairs Office (January 2016 - January 2017)
Grant writing
Erasmus & Mevlana exchange programs management
Document preparation and proofreading for international collaborations and memorandum of understanding.
Improved the operation, organized the duties of employees, managed student exchange projects' applications and budget.
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON, HOUSTON, TX, USA
Aug 2011 - May 2015
Civil & Environmental Engineering Department
Developed a high-throughput enzymatic assay to detect urease enzyme activity.
Isolated ureolytic bacteria from travertines and cave samples; optimized growth and ureolytic bioprocess; investigated CO2 sequestration; did metagenomics study using NGS (Illumina MiSeq – collaborated with NASA Johnson Space Center); optimized protocols for metabolomics study.
Investigated biosorption of heavy metals (Cu and Cr).
Investigated antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties of ZnO nanorods (synthesized by a collaborator).
Investigated deposition kinetics of E. coli using confocal microscopy and radial stagnation point flow (RSPF) system.
Supervisor of the department for the studies of molecular biology, microbiology and cell culture, as well as DOE, maintenance of microbial culture collection, SEM and AAS.
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, EGE UNIVERSITY, IZMIR , TURKEY
Jun 2007 - Jun 2011
Bioengineering Department
Investigated lipid-producer microorganisms (Scenedesmus, Chlamydomonas, Botryococcus, Tetracystis, Nannochloris, Nannochloropsis, Isochrysis, Neochloris) for biodiesel application.
Investigated the optimization of omega-3 fatty acids production by heterotrophic microalgae.
Investigated and optimized the growth conditions for the best microalgae species for AKKIM Company (Yalova, Turkey) as a feasibility test for large-scale microalgae production.
Isolated marine cyanobacteria and microalgae from different locations in Aegean Sea for the MAREX EU/FP7 Project.
Collaborated in photobioreactor design studies for productions of fatty acids and carotenoids.
Responsible for the microalgae culture collection (EGEMACC).
EDUCATION
Aug 2011 - May 2015
PHD
UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON
"Environmental Engineering"
Dissertation: Carbon dioxide sequestration through microbially-induced calcium carbonate precipitation using ureolytic environmental microorganisms.
Advisor: Debora Frigi Rodrigues
Sep 2007 - Jun 2010
MS
EGE UNIVERSITY
"Bioengineering"
Thesis: Determination of factors affecting the lipid content of some microalgae.
Advisor: Meltem Conk Dalay
Sep 2003 - Jun 2007
BS
EGE UNIVERSITY
"Bioengineering"
Thesis: Photobioreactors used for the microalgae cultivation (a review).
Advisor: Meltem Conk Dalay
SKILLS
No matter the role or project, I’m confident in the skill set I bring to the table. Take a look below to learn more about my specific abilities, and feel free to get in touch if you’d like to learn more.
RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT SKILLS
Microbial biotechnology
Cell & tissue culture
Bioprocess optimization
DOE / Statistics
Bioreactor design & operation
Downstream processes
Process improvement
Assay development & optimization
Instrumental analysis
Molecular biology techniques
Protein expression
Metagenomics
Metabolomics
LABORATORY SKILLS
UV-VIS Spectroscopy
Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS)
Mass Spectroscopy (MS)
X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS)
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM)
Confocal Microscopy
Fluorescence Microscopy
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM)
Gas Chromatography (GC)
Ion Exchange Chromatography
HPLC
FTIR
Electrophoresis
DNA & RNA isolation
PCR / qPCR / T-RFLP
Sequencing
Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)
TEACHING SKILLS
Biotechnology
Enzyme Engineering
Enzyme Kinetics
Biomaterials
Biochemical Processes
Biosorption
Chemical & Biochemical Reactor Design
Engineering Process Design I-II
Differential Equations
Water Technology
Nanotechnology
Quality Management
Environmental Pollution and Control
Unit Operations Laboratory
Chemical Engineering Applications Laboratory
General Chemistry Laboratory I-II
OTHER SKILLS
Scientific writing
Copy editing
Substantive editing
Troubleshooting
Critical thinking
Data analysis
Design-Expert
OriginLab
Molecular Evolutionary Genetics Analysis - MEGA
PyElph
Illumina MiSeq Reporter
iNEXT
XLSTAT
Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
Python
JOURNAL PUBLICATIONS
Onal Okyay, T. and Rodrigues, D.F. (2020). CO2 Sequestration and Microbially-Induced Mineral Precipitation: A Review (in preparation).
Sen et al. (2018). Highly efficient polymer supported monodisperse ruthenium-nickel nanocomposites for dehydrocoupling of dimethylamine borane. J. Colloid Interface Sci., 526, 480-486.
Sen et al. (2018). Monodisperse palladium nanoparticles assembled on graphene oxide with the high catalytic activity and reusability in the dehydrogenation of dimethylamine-borane. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy, 43(44), 20176-20182.
Sert et al. (2017). Activated Carbon Furnished Monodisperse Pt Nanocomposites as a Superior Adsorbent for Methylene Blue Removal from Aqueous Solutions. J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol, 17(7), 4799-4804.
Baskaya et al. (2017). Rapid, sensitive, and reusable detection of glucose by highly monodisperse nickel nanoparticles decorated functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Biosens. Bioelectron., 91, 728-733.
Sen et al. (2017). Hydrogen liberation from the dehydrocoupling of dimethylamine–borane at room temperature by using novel and highly monodispersed RuPtNi nanocatalysts decorated with graphene oxide. Int. J. Hydrog. Energy, 41(36), 23299-23306.
Gezer et al. (2017). Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) as highly effective material for the ultrasound assisted boric acid extraction from ulexite ore. Chem. Eng. Res. Des., 117, 542-548.
Yıldız et al. (2017). Highly Monodisperse Pt/Rh Nanoparticles Confined in the Graphene Oxide for Highly Efficient and Reusable Sorbents for Methylene Blue Removal from Aqueous Solutions. Chemistry Select, 2(2), 697-701.
Onal Okyay et al. (2016). CO2 sequestration by ureolytic microbial consortia through microbially induced calcite precipitation. Sci. Total Environ., 572, 671-680.
Sert et al. (2016). Monodisperse Mw Pt NPs @VC as Highly Efficient and Reusable Adsorbents for Methylene Blue Removal. J. Clust. Sci., 6(27), 1953-1962.
Onal Okyay, T. and Rodrigues, D.F. (2015). Biotic and abiotic effects on CO2 sequestration during microbially induced calcium carbonate precipitation. FEMS Microbiol. Ecol., 91(3).
Bayam et al. (2015). Sonochemically grown 1D ZnO nanostructures and their applications. SPIE 9553 Low-Dimensional Materials and Devices (95530E).
Onal Okyay et al (2015). Antibacterial properties and mechanisms of toxicity of sonochemically grown ZnO nanorods. RSC Advances, 5, 2568-2575.
Fan et al. (2014). The synergism of temperature, pH and growth phases on heavy metal biosorption by two environmental isolates. J. Hazard. Mater., 279, 236-243.
Onal Okyay, T. and Rodrigues, D.F. (2014). Optimized carbonate micro particle production by Sporosarcina pasteurii using response surface methodology. Ecol. Eng., 62, 168-174.
Onal Okyay, T. and Rodrigues, D.F. (2013). High throughput colorimetric assay for rapid urease activity quantification. J. Microbiol. Methods, 95(3), 324-326.
AWARDS
Academic Career Award, the Council of Higher Education, Usak, Turkey (12/2018-12/2019).
Fellowship for the 3rd Theoretical and Applied Tissue Engineering Course, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey (2018).
Academic Career Award, the Council of Higher Education, Usak, Turkey (12/2017-12/2018).
The EU Proposal Threshold Award (TUBITAK 2024-Award), The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (which is given for the proposals >80/100 for EU-MSCA Project Proposal Applications) (2017).
Academic Career Award, the Council of Higher Education, Usak, Turkey (12/2016-12/2017).
The Best PhD Dissertation Award, runner up, Cullen College of Engineering, University of Houston, Houston, TX (2015).
GRASP (Graduate Research and Scholarship Projects Day) candidate, University of Houston, Houston, TX (2014).
PhD Scholarship, the Ministry of National Education of Turkey (08/2011-05/2015).
Poster award, 3rd place, “Bioeconomy for Future”, Ege University, Izmir, Turkey (2010).
FEBS Scholarship for “QCM, SPR/Ellipsometer & AFM as Novel Biosensors & Imaging Systems Workshop”, Hacettepe University, Ankara, Turkey (2008).
LET’S CONNECT
I’d love to hear from you for any collaborations or positions.
Irvine, CA 92618
+1-949-735-5649
