Ordal Demokan (January 13, 1946 – October 29, 2004) was a

Turkish Turkish may refer to: * Something related to Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire * The w ...

physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...

Biography

Born in

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

, Demokan graduated from

TED Ankara Koleji TED Ankara College Foundation Schools is a group of private schools in Turkey. It consists of kindergarten, elementary, middle and high schools. Its İncek Campus, considered sizeable with 141,000 square meters of enclosed and over 309,000 square ...

in 1962, and received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees on Electrical Engineering in 1966 and 1967 from

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish language, Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a prestigious public university, public Institute of technology, technical university located in Ankara, ...

(METU) in

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

. He received TÜBITAK scholarship between 1964 and 1967. He received his Ph.D. degree on physics from University of Iowa in 1970, through

Fulbright scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

between 1967 and 1969 and

University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...

Education Scholarship. In September 1970, he started working as an assistant professor in the Department of Physics at Middle East Technical University. The plasma physics research in METU is initiated by Ordal Demokan in 1972 with his establishing the plasma physics laboratory. He acquired the title of Associate Professor in 1976. In 1978–1979, he worked as director of

TAEK The Turkish Energy, Nuclear and Mineral Research Agency was formed from other agencies and the Turkish Atomic Energy Authority which was the official nuclear energy institution of Turkey. The headquarters is located in Ankara since 1956, the y ...

Plasma and Laser Department. Between 1979 and 1981, he was in

Jülich Research Centre Jülich (; in old spellings also known as ''Guelich'' or ''Gülich'', , , Ripuarian: ''Jöllesch'') is a town in the district of Düren, in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, in western Germany. As a border region between the competin ...

's Institute of Plasma Physic as a guest researcher, working on TEXTOR

Tokamak A tokamak (; ) is a device which uses a powerful magnetic field generated by external magnets to confine plasma (physics), plasma in the shape of an axially symmetrical torus. The tokamak is one of several types of magnetic confinement fusi ...

Experiment. Afterwards he returned to newly founded

Gazi University Gazi University () is a Public university, public research university located primarily in Ankara, Turkey. It was founded in 1926 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk originally as the Gazi Education Institute (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Gazi Eğitim Ens ...

in Turkey in 1982, where he worked in Faculty of Technical Education between 1982 and 1983. In 1983 he was the chairman of the Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering. In 1984 he returned to METU, where he was the assistant chairman of the Department of Physics between 1984 and 1985. He received the title of Professor in 1988. He was killed in a car crash on October 29, 2004, in Ümitköy, Ankara, when a motorist hit him while he was crossing the road. Driver was a 17-year-old boy, who had no driver's licence. He was buried at

Cebeci Asri Cemetery The Cebeci Asri Cemetery () is a cemetery located in the Cebeci quarter of central Ankara, Turkey serving multiple religions. It was the first modern burial place in the capital city, and is the final resting place of many prominent figures. As o ...

in Ankara.

References

METU Physics Department History
*
Kaybettiklerimiz Ankara Kolejliler, Sayi 79
*

External links

* Erdal Demokan on

Turkish Wikipedia The Turkish Wikipedia () is the Turkish language edition of Wikipedia, spelled ''Vikipedi''. Started on 5 December 2002, as of , this edition has articles and is the largest Wikipedia edition, and ranks 16th in terms of depth among Wikipedias ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Demokan, Ordal Scientists from Istanbul Turkish physicists 1946 births 2004 deaths Pedestrian road incident deaths Academic staff of Middle East Technical University Road incident deaths in Turkey Burials at Cebeci Asri Cemetery