57 Notable alumni of Bogazici University

Halil Guven is a Cypriot-born professor, currently serving as the Dean of San Diego State University - Georgia. He was a Vice Dean of SDSU Georgia for four years before then and was one of the coordinators of the project at the time of its conception. Dr. Güven served as a Rector at three different universities in Turkey and in...

Gorgun Taner is the general director of the Istanbul Foundation for Culture and Arts (İKSV), a non-profit, non-governmental organisation founded in 1973 that organises four international festivals (film, theatre, classical music and jazz), the Istanbul Biennial, and the Istanbul Design Biennial. He has been working at the foundation since 1983, where he first worked at Istanbul Film Days (renamed later...

Çiler İlhan is a Turkish-Dutch writer. İlhan has been an active writer since her youth. In 1993, she won the Yaşar Nabi Nayır Youth Awards award for one of her short stories. She regularly publishes stories, essays, book reviews, travel pieces and translations in newspapers and magazines. Her first book "Rüya Tacirleri Odası" is a collection of short stories that...

Seda Eğridere is a Turkish actress and film director. Eğridere acted in Alina, the Turkish Assassin. In an interview with Hurriyet, Bobby Roth said "I accepted the project and agreed to shoot in Turkey only because I trusted Seda." In 2014, Eğridere made her directorial debut with the wartime drama Seasons of War, a story about a multi-ethnic couple during...

Yener Mehmet Sonuşen is a Turkish businessman. He is on the boards of Savola Food Inc., Yudum Food Co., Bahçeşehir Koleji and Egypt food Co.

Zeynep Ergun was a professor at Institute of Social Sciences English Language and Literature Department of Istanbul University.

Halil Mete Soner is a Turkish American mathematician born in Ankara and is the Norman John Sollenberger Professor at Princeton University. Soner's research interests are nonlinear partial differential equations; asymptotic analysis of Ginzburg-Landau type systems, viscosity solutions, and mathematical finance. Currently he is working on mean field games and control and related nonlinear partial differential equations on Wasserstein spaces.

Tuna Altınel is a Turkish mathematician, born February 12, 1966, in Istanbul, who has worked at the University Lyon 1 in France since 1996. He is a specialist in group theory and mathematical logic. With Alexandre Borovik and Gregory Cherlin, he proved a major case of the Cherlin–Zilber conjecture.

Niko Guido is a Turkish-French photographer.

Mehmet Ali İrtemçelik is the previous ambassador of the Republic of Turkey to Germany. He has also served as member of parliament in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey and as a minister of state in the Council of Ministers of Turkey. He graduated from Galatasaray High School and Boğaziçi University, both in Istanbul, Turkey.

Özdil Nami is a British-born Turkish Cypriot politician. He has served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Northern Cyprus and the Turkish Cypriot Special Representative in the negotiations to solve the Cyprus dispute. He currently serves as the Minister of Economy and Energy of Northern Cyprus.

Osman Murat Ertel is a Turkish musician. He is the son of Mengü Ertel and Ülfet Ertel.

Hişyar Özsoy, is a Turkish politician and academic of Kurdish descent. He is a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) for the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP)

Sedat Bornovalı is a Turkish art historian (PhD), interpreter, and professional tourist guide. He works in Italian, English, and Turkish. Bornovalı is known for his research on the architectural history of Istanbul, focusing on the interactions between Italian and Ottoman architects, and for his role as a guide and interpreter for visiting heads of state.

Baybars Altuntaş is a Turkish entrepreneur, angel investor, speaker and author based in Istanbul. He founded Deulcom International, a vocational training school in Turkey in 1992 and currently serves as the president of the executive committee of the company. He is currently a jury member on the new Turkish entrepreneurship program and is the current host of the Turkish version...

Ivet Bahar is a Turkish-American computational biologist, currently serving as the Director of the Louis and Beatrice Laufer Center for Physical and Quantitative Biology, Louis & Beatrice Laufer Endowed Chair and Professor of Biochemistry and Cell Biology at the Stony Brook University, School of Medicine. Before joining Stony Brook University, she served as Distinguished Professor, John K. Vries Chair and...

Uğur Ersoy is a Turkish civil engineer and academic.

Pelin Esmer is a Turkish Film director, screenwriter and film producer.

Murat Gülsoy is a Turkish writer. He started his literary career as a publisher and a writer of the bimonthly magazine Hayalet Gemi (Ghost Ship) in 1992. Since then, he has published 18 books. Besides short stories, he has novels addressing modern masters Kafka, Borges, Eco, Laurence Sterne, Fowles and Orhan Pamuk. He is the recipient of various prestigious national...

Celil Oker was a Turkish crime fiction writer.

Sedef Ecer is a Turkish-French playwright, novelist, actress and screenwriter. She began her career as a child film actress in Turkey, and later moved to France. She has written a number of plays in both Turkish and French, which have been widely translated, and her first novel was published in 2021.

Taner Edis is a Turkish American physicist and skeptic. He is a professor of physics at Truman State University. He received his B.S. from Boğaziçi University in Turkey and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. Edis is the author of several books on creationism, religion and science. He is a fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

Burak Akçapar is a Turkish diplomat, scholar, and author currently serving as Turkey's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office at Geneva. Previously, he held the position of Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. Akçapar has served as Turkey’s Ambassador to Spain from 2021 until 2023 and to India from 2011 until 2017. He is an Associate Professor of International Relations...

Reha Erdem is a Turkish film director and screenwriter.

Ravza Kavakçı Kan is a Turkish politician, elected as the President of the Turkish Inter-Parliamentary Union Group for the 27th legislative term of Grand National Assembly of Turkey and is a member of the Committee on Digital Platforms that is newly established.

İbrahim Eren is a Turkish bureaucrat.

Suat Atalık is a Turkish-Bosnian chess grandmaster. He is a three-time Turkish Chess Champion and the first Turkish chess-player ever to obtain title of chess Grandmaster.

Genco Gülan is a Turkish conceptual artist and art theorist whose work spans new media art, performance art, sculpture, painting, and photography.

Aylin Aslım is a Turkish singer, songwriter and actress.

Mustafa Akyol is a Turkish writer, intellectual, and journalist. Notable for his advocacy on reform on blasphemy, apostasy and gender relations in the Muslim world, he has been called “probably the most notable Muslim modernist and reformer”.

Murat Çetinkaya served as the governor of Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) between 2016 and 2019. He had been a member of top-level economic policy-making platforms in Turkey, such as Economic Policies Coordination Council, Financial Stability Committee. He was the official representative of Turkey in G-20. He contributed to the works of Financial Stability Board (FSB) and...

Mehmet Fatih Kacır is a Turkish politician and entrepreneur.

Vedat Taylan Yıldız is a Turkish politician. He is member of the Good Party group in the Municipal Council of Istanbul.

Ömür Gedik is a Turkish journalist. She is a writer for Hürriyet newspaper, artist, animal rights advocate, a member of SİYAD (Association of Cinema Writers), and founder and president of HAÇİKO Association (The Association for the Protection of Animals from Desperation and Indifference).

Aslı Erdoğan is a prize-winning Turkish writer, author, human rights activist, and columnist for Özgür Gündem and formerly for Radikal, ex political prisoner, particle physicist. Her second novel has been published in English, and eight books translated into twenty languages.

Sami Harun Tekin is a Turkish singer, musician, and poet. He is one of the founding members and the vocalist of the Turkish rock band Mor ve Ötesi.

Feridun Hadi Sinirlioğlu is a Turkish diplomat and politician serving as the Secretary General of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) since 6 December 2024. Previously, he served as permanent representative of Turkey to the United Nations from 2016 to 2023 and as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey from August 2015 to November 2015.

Arzuhan Doğan Yalçındağ is a Turkish businesswoman and chairwoman of the Doğan Holding industrial conglomerate.

Kadri Enis Berberoğlu is a Turkish politician and journalist from the Republican People's Party (CHP), who has served as the Member of Parliament for Istanbul's second electoral district since 2015.

Zeynep Tufekci is a Turkish-American sociologist, and the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs at Princeton University. She is also a columnist for The New York Times. Her work focuses on social media, media ethics, the social implications of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence and big data, as well as societal challenges such as the COVID-19...

Defne Samyeli is a Turkish TV presenter, columnist, singer and actress.

Güler Sabancı is a Turkish businesswoman, a third-generation member of the Sabancı family, and the former chair of the family-controlled Sabancı Holding, the second-largest industrial and financial conglomerate in Turkey. As of 2023, she was listed as the 77th most powerful woman in the world by Forbes, which first recognized her in 1999.

Ferhan Nil Karaibrahimgil is a Turkish singer and songwriter, mostly noted for her distinct lyrics.

Pelin Batu is a Turkish author, actress, historian, and television personality.

Saadet Işıl Aksoy is a Turkish actress, who received critical acclaim with her portrayal of Aska, a red-haired punk trumpet player in Italian actor-director Sergio Castellitto's film Twice Born, in which she co-starred with Penélope Cruz and Emile Hirsch. Christy Lemire described her as "the striking Saadet Aksoy" in her Twice Born review, and film critic David Rooney stated, "Saadet...

Ahmet Davutoğlu is a Turkish academic, politician and former diplomat who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Turkey and Leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) from 2014 to 2016. He previously served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2009 to 2014 and chief advisor to Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan from 2003 to 2009. He was elected...

Tansu Çiller is a Turkish academic, economist, and politician who served as the 22nd prime minister of Turkey from 1993 to 1996. She is Turkey's only female prime minister. As the leader of the True Path Party, she went on to concurrently serve as Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey and as minister of foreign affairs between 1996 and 1997.

Cem Yılmaz is a Turkish actor, stand-up comedian, musician, filmmaker, screenwriter, and cartoonist. He has four franchise film series: G.O.R.A., Karakomik Filmler, Organize İşler, Vizontele. Also, He is best known for his films Yahşi Batı, Hokkabaz, İftarlık Gazoz, Av Mevsimi and has won three Sadri Alışık awards and Yeşilçam award for his roles. His international films are Russell Crowe's film...

Murat Ülker is a Turkish billionaire businessperson and the former chair of Yıldız Holding. He is among the 800 richest people in the world as of January 2026.

Gülse Birsel is a Turkish actress, screenwriter and columnist. She is known for the sitcom series, Avrupa Yakası, Yalan Dünya and the film 7 Kocalı Hürmüz.

Fahriye Evcen Özçivit is a German-born Turkish actress and model. She is known for her roles as Necla Tekin in the TV series Yaprak Dökümü and as Feride in the TV series Çalıkuşu, both based on novels by Reşat Nuri Güntekin.

Ayşe Sinirlioğlu is a Turkish diplomat, who has been her country's ambassador to Romania and then to Spain and Andorra. She became Turkey's first woman deputy undersecretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2015 she was the Sherpa during Turkey's presidency and the Antalya summit of the G20 group of countries.

Sedef Kabaş is a Turkish journalist and television presenter who has presented on various news channels in Turkey since 1997. In January 2022, she received international attention after she was arrested following a television interview in which she was alleged to have insulted Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Özge Samancı is a Turkish-American media artist, and associate professor at Northwestern University`s School of Communication. She creates media art installations and graphic novels. Her art installations merge computer code and bio-sensors with comics, animation, interactive narrations, performance, and projection art. Her installations use media arts to break down people's mental and emotional barriers and hear about environmental issues. Her...

Hilal Kaplan is a Turkish journalist and TRT board member and columnist for the Turkish newspaper Taraf, Yeni Şafak, Sabah and Daily Sabah.

Nuri Bilge Ceylan is a Turkish director, screenwriter, photographer and actor. His film Winter Sleep (2014) won the Palme d'Or at the 67th Cannes Film Festival, while six of his films have been selected as Turkey's submission for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.