Speaker profile
Dr Cenk Turkoglu
Available for booking
Summary
Researcher in experimental astro-particle physics, working in direct and indirect searches for dark matter.
Full biography
I am an experimental astroparticle physicist currently working as a postdoctoral researcher. I obtained my bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. In my master’s thesis, I analysed data from the AMS-02 experiment to create a galactic map showing the origins of gamma rays and constructed a gamma-ray spectrum to search for potential dark matter annihilation signals.
Following my master’s, I moved to Vienna, Austria, to pursue a PhD, during which I studied at the Vienna University of Technology and conducted research at the Institute of High Energy Physics. My doctoral work focused on analysing data from the CRESST dark matter direct detection experiment, developing methods to remove background noise and improve sensitivity to possible dark matter signals.
My first postdoctoral research position was at the University of Sussex, where I worked on detector development for future dark matter experiments and tested a scientific CMOS camera as part of a project to create an affordable method for measuring lead levels in drinking water in developing countries. I also developed a peak-finding algorithm for nuclear decay identification.
My next postdoctoral role was at AstroCeNT in Warsaw, Poland, where I focused on detector development and testing for the DarkSide-20k experiment, which seeks to directly detect dark matter particles.
After my time in Warsaw, I returned to the UK to join the University of Sheffield, where I am involved in the design optimisation of a muon-tomography-based security scanner for deployment at customs facilities across Europe and the UK to combat the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and humans.
My areas of expertise include direct dark matter detection, Monte Carlo simulations, data analysis, detector development, detector testing, and optimisation.
