Murat Yildirim, PhD

I was born and raised in Ankara which is the capital of Turkey. Since my elemantary school years, I am into math and science. This interest was also motivated by my elementary school teacher, Ulker Somel at Iltekin Ilkokulu. Also, my grandmother helped me have passion with numbers while we were playing different brain games. I went to Gazi Anatolian High School for my middle and high school education. I always had wonderful teachers in this school who continuously motivated me to focus on Math and Science. This passion led me to choose Mechanical Engineering as my occupation. After studying Mechanical Engineering as an METU undergraduate, I made a turn toward the optical sciences as I sought out interesting optical measurement techniques to address different engineering questions. As I was performing my MSc degree at METU Mechanical Engineering, I was determined to develop fiber optic interferometry to determine micron level displacements for revealing the lubricant thickness in hermetically-sealed small compressor cylinder systems. This experience led me to learn more about lasers and their applications. After finishing my MSc degree, I found out biological applications of femtosecond lasers which can provide unprecedented precision in imaging and surgery applications while I was pursuing my PhD at UT Austin. Thus, I learned to develop bench-top and endoscopic systems to perform nonlinear imaging assisted microsurgery to understand the vocal fold scarring. As a post-doctoral associate at MIT, I am currently developing optical microscopy and stimulation tools to perform in vivo imaging and optogenetics with awake animal models. Apart from performing research, I am passionate with exercising, playing musical instruments, and Latin-American dancing.