CV of Prof. Dr. Ziya AKTAŞ

Ziya Aktaş was born in 1940 in Kemaliye/Erzincan. He got his BS and MS in 1962 and 1963, respectively, both at METU (Middle East Technical University) in Ankara. He had a Fulbright Scholarship in 1966 and went to USA for a graduate study. He received his Ph.D. in 1969 at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania/USA. He returned home in the same year and joined today’s Department of Computer Engineering at METU. He visited Vienna Technical University as an associate professor during the school year 1973-1974. He became a full professor in 1978 as the first full professor of Computer Science/Engineering in Turkey. Prof.Aktaş served as the chairman of the Department during 1977-81 and 1983-1988.

Prof.Aktaş had taught at Purdue University School of Engineering and Technology at Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, between 1981-1983 as a Visiting Professor. Between 1988-1991 he became the founding General Manager of a technical consultancy firm, STRABIS, in Ankara.

He is the author of the book “Structured Analysis and Design of Information Systems” published by Prentice Hall in 1987 in the USA.

He had been a faculty member of the Department of Computer Engineering, METU and served also as the Vice President of State Institute of Statistics (SIS) of Turkey in charge of Information Systems during 1992-1995.

In the general elections of December 1995 and April 1999 he had been elected as the Deputy of İstanbul in the Democratic Left Party ( DSP ) to the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Prof.Aktaş had served as the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in the Ecevit’s Short Term Cabinet during January 11-May 28, 1999. He had been a member of IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) and Chairman of the Information and Information Technology Group in the Turkish Parliament and Vice President of Turkish - US Interparliamentarian Friendship Group.

Prof. Aktaş served first as the Dean of Engineering and later as the Rector of the University between September 2003 – September 2006 in Çankaya University – Ankara. He is now a faculty member in the Department of Computer Engineering of the same University. Prof.Aktaş is a member of ACM, TBD and TBV.

He speaks English and German. He is married and has two sons.