Department of Environmental Engineering

I'm Professor Yasemin Kaya. I am a faculty member at Istanbul University - Cerrahpaşa, Faculty of Engineering, Department of Environmental Engineering. I completed my undergraduate, graduate and doctorate studies in Istanbul University, Environmental Engineering Department. My academic career began in Istanbul University Environmental Engineering Department and still carries on with my duties here for the last 20 years. My main areas of work are industrial and domestic wastewater treatment, waste prevention, water and product recovery. I did research at the Energy and Environment Institute in Germany after completing my doctorate studies. There are many outsourced projects that I have carried out executive roles in and I also have patent applications in my name. Of course, our most important contributions are our articles which have come out both in national and international journals and congresses and also the students we have graduated. Our department was established in 1990. We have 30 years of knowledge and experience under our belt. In addition to our undergraduate education program, we also have postgraduate and doctoral programs. Since 2019 - 2020, we have opened our 100% English program as well as our Turkish program. We offer the seventh best program of English environmental engineering in Turkey. We hold the eighth place among the Turkish programs. We are a young, dynamic and productive department. We have an academic staff of 29 people. 13 professors, 5 associate professors, 3 doctoral lecturers, 7 research assistants and 1 engineer. Our department also has many achievements. There are many TÜBİTAK projects, European Union Projects, Istanbul Development Agency Projects. In addition to these, we carry out joint studies with many industries. We also provide technical support to many sectors. Our department is also in a very good condition in terms of patent application. With all this knowledge and experience, we have been graduating environmental engineers for 30 years. We have a continuing relationship with our students and graduates, and we are happy and proud of their achievements. In the Environmental Engineering Department, courses are given on water, wastewater, air, soil pollution and management, solid waste management, environmental management systems and environmental legislation. In addition, we have a wide range of elective courses and our students can choose these courses according to their interests. Also, we have courses on quality management, occupational health and safety, engineering ethics and entrepreneurship which are must courses in our faculty. In our department, apart from basic engineering laboratories, physics and general chemistry laboratories, there are laboratories for our environmental chemistry, environmental microbiology and basic processing courses. In addition to these, we provide computer-aided education in computer programming, computer-aided technical drawing and current computer applications courses in environmental engineering.
As a part of the Erasmus program, for the 2019-2020 academic year, we have agreements with two universities, one in Poland and one in Romania. As for postgraduate programs, we have agreements with two universities, one in Italy and the other in Romania. In addition, we accept students from other educational institutions from our country as a part of the Farabi Program. Our own students can also study at other universities for one year. Since 2012, there are national and international symposiums organized every 2 years in our department. One of them is the Environmental Management Symposium, a meeting we organize jointly with the Cerrahpaşa Faculty of Medicine, which brings together the health sector and engineers in national health institutions. Another one is the International Conference on Recycling and Reuse, another successful meeting with high international participation. The Institutions and organizations that our students can work in after graduating are the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization, Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works, State Planning Organization, provincial banks, Provincial Directorates of Environment, municipalities, private sector, sanitary landfills, water and waste water treatment facilities, recycling facilities, energy facilities, organizations such as testing laboratories. They can work as operators, planners, modelers, engineers and consultants in these institutions that I just mentioned. Our students often face difficulties in our basic engineering courses, in higher mathematics. As for our departmental courses, I see that they have more difficulty in project design and modeling courses. Speaking on behalf of all the academic staff, we are always with our students both during and after the courses and we try to find solutions to their problems. The Environmental Engineering Department, with its multidisciplinary structure, it is closely related to biology, chemistry, chemical engineering, even ecology and hydrology, so I recommend students who are interested in these subjects to choose it. Also, while choosing a department, I suggest them to choose this department considering their dreams and ideals for the future. Students coming from outside of Istanbul are aware of the social and cultural opportunities and challenges in Istanbul. Our students are now very conscious of these issues. We are a well-established university and we are a research university, and besides this, we are currently located on a campus where transportation is also easy. Metrobus and train lines are located very close to our campus. In addition, there is a Project and Technology Office on our campus. Our students can work here during their education or after graduation, and even have the opportunity to establish a company. I wish success to the students who will choose Istanbul University - Cerrahpaşa, Faculty of Engineering, Environmental Engineering Department.