Candan Tamerler, PhD

Dr. Candan Tamerler joined to the University of Kansas (KU) in 2013 as the Wesley G. Cramer Professor at the Mechanical Engineering Department as well as at the Bioengineering Program. She currently serves as Associate Vice Chancellor for Research at KU, after having served three years as the School of Engineering’s Associate Dean for Research between 2019-2022. Prior to KU, Dr. Tamerler was a faculty member in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington. She was one of the core faculty members who established the Genetically-Engineered Materials Science & Engineering Center (GEMSEC) at the University of Washington supported by NSF- MRSEC (Materials Research Science and Engineering Centers) program in 2005, and later served as GEMSEC’s Assistant Director until she moved to the KU.

From 2002 to 2010 she was Professor and Chair of the Molecular Biology and Genetics Department at the Istanbul Technical University (ITU) concurrently holding a Visiting Professor position in the Materials Science and Engineering Department at the University of Washington. While at ITU, Professor Tamerler founded and served as the Director of the Molecular Biology and Biotechnology Research Center, a multi-disciplinary initiative involving faculty members from the College of Engineering as well as the College of Arts and Science.

Dr. Tamerler`s research has a strong interdisciplinary approach being at the intersection of engineering, biology, and nanotechnology and received more than $20 million funding as lead, co-lead or as a participant. Her most notable contributions include engineering peptide and proteins to modulate materials/tissue interfacial interactions and designing biomimetic bioactive and functional materials for health care and sustainable technology solutions. She has been awarded international visiting scientist and professorship positions at the University of Westminster (UK) and the University of Nagoya (Japan). Since 2013, she has been an affiliated professor at the University of Washington. She has published 150 journal articles, 30 proceedings, several book chapters and patents that received more than 9,500 citations Google Scholar: H-index 49; scholargps H-index: 51 ).

Dr. Tamerler received the 2023 Distinguished Scientist/Engineer Award, presented by the Functional Materials Division of the Minerals, Metals and Materials Society, at the 152nd TMS Annual Meeting. TMS, the leading organization has for more than 12,000 member scientists and engineers working in industry, academia and government around the world. She is an elected Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and Fellow of the Turkish Academy of Science (TÜBA).