Johns Hopkins’ 2015 Siebel Scholars are, from left, Iraj Hosseini, Mert Ankarali, Carmen Kut, and Joel Sunshine. Recipient Tuo Zhao is not pictured. IMAGE: WILL KIRK / HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU
Congratulations to Mert Ankarali, a fourth-year Mechanical Engineering PhD student, on being named one of five Siebel Scholars for 2015!
Ankarali hails from Ankara, Turkey and is working with faculty advisor Noah Cowan. His research looks to discover the rules by which the human nervous system controls rhythmic dynamic behaviors, focusing specifically on the control-systems modeling of human locomotion. Having an understating of the control-systems modeling is essential for improving the quality of life of individuals suffering from motor deficits. Ankarali’s long-term goal is to provide a foundation on which to build locomotion rehabilitation techniques, design neural prosthetic interfaces, and develop engineered systems for human-computer interaction.
The Siebel Scholars program was founded in 2000 by the Siebel Foundation to recognize the most talented students at the world’s leading graduate schools in business, computer science, and bioengineering. Today, more than 950 Siebel Scholars are active in the program, which seeks to nurture leadership, academic achievement, and the collaborative search for solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.
Siebel Scholars are chosen by the deans of their respective schools on the basis of outstanding academic achievement and demonstrated leadership. The merit-based Siebel program provides $35,000 to each of the five PhD candidates for use in his or her final year of graduate studies. On average, Siebel Scholars rank in the top 5 percent of their class, many within the top 1 percent.
The five 2015 Johns Hopkins Siebel Scholar recipients are among 83 students selected from prominent graduate schools in the United States and China. The other students are from the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Department of Computer Science.