SECRETARY GENERAL

Date of Birth: October 06, 1961

Current Position: Professor, Mechanical Engineering, / Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University

Research Fields: System Dynamics, Vibrations and Control, Smart and Auxetic Structures, Composites,

Machine Design and Optimization, FEM.

Dr. Sunar received his B.S. degree from Istanbul Technical University in 1983, M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from The Pennsylvania State and Purdue Universities of USA in 1989 and 1993, respectively, all in Mechanical Engineering.

He worked as a design assistant to a professional engineer at the Physical Plant of the Pennsylvania State University in the years 1987 and 1988. He then worked as a research and teaching assistant in the School of Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University from 1989 to 1993 during his Ph.D. study. He also worked as a design consultant for the United Technologies-Carrier, Indianapolis, USA, for one and half year during this period. After serving as a design specialist for the Directorate General of Water Works (DSI) of the Turkish Government for one year between 1993 and 1994, he joined the Mechanical Engineering (ME) Department of King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals (KFUPM), Saudi Arabia, assuming Assistant Professorship position in 1994. He worked in the ME Department of KFUPM at Assistant and Associate Professorship positions until 2018. He next joined the ME Department of the newly-founded Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University (AYBU) as a Professor in 2018. He was simultaneously appointed as the Structural Engineering Manager in Central Engineering Division of Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI), where he served for two years until 2020. He is currently working as the Professor of ME at AYBU.

Dr. Sunar was awarded Turkish Government scholarship in 1984 for M.S. study in the USA after succesfully passing a science exam held countrywide. This was later extended to include the Ph.D. study. His M.S. and Ph.D. thesis studies dealt with structural optimization and smart structures using piezoelectric materials, respectively. His work at United Technologies-Carrier of the USA on re-designing and thermal-structural analysis of a home furnace received “Recognition of Excellence”. He was given twice “Distinguished Teaching & Advising Awards” at KFUPM in the years 2001 and 2013. His funded project by King A. Aziz City of Science and Technology (KACST) of Saudi Arabia entitled “Developing a Technique for Blade Vibration Measurements in Turbomachinery & Jet Engines” received a silver medal in 2006. Dr. Sunar published over 70 papers in prestigious international journals and conference proceedings. His most-cited papers included “Piezoelectricity and its Use in Disturbance Sensing and Control of Flexible Structures: A Survey” by the ASME Applied Mechanics Reviews (1994) with 647 citations, “Vibration Analysis of Rotating Machinery using Time-Frequency Analysis and Wavelet Techniques” by the Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing (2011) with 329 citations, and “Analysis of Thermopiezoelectric Sensors and Actuators in Advanced Intelligent Structures” by the AIAA Journal (1993) with 222 citations as recorded by the Google Scholar. He managed projects or participated in projects, which are valued over one million USD and funded by one of the biggest componies in the world, that is SAUDI ARAMCO, by KACST, by Saudi Arabian Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC) and by the University (KFUPM). During his appointment at KFUPM, he was involved in several short courses offered to industries surrounding KFUPM, such as SAUDI ARAMCO, SABIC and SCECO (Saudi Arabia Electric Company). He supervised 1 Ph.D. and 7 M.S. students at KFUPM, and 1 M.S. student at AYBU. He is currently supervising 2 Ph.D. and 5 M.S. students at AYBU in the areas of piezoelectricity, control, composite materials, design optimization and auxetic structures.