Dr. Ayça Arslan of the National Nanotechnology Research Center (UNAM) received an award from the Science and Society Directorate of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK) for her leadership of the “My DNA Summer School” project. The award was second prize in the “4004 – Nature Applications Encouragement Award” category of the Science and Society Support Programs Project Encouragement Awards, held for the first time this year.
Held at UNAM from August 15 to 22, 2022, the “My DNA Summer School” brought together 60 female students in the 9th and 10th grades who showed scientific potential but faced socioeconomic disadvantages.
The project aimed to encourage greater participation of young women in science and technology.
Led by Dr. Arslan and a team of UNAM graduate researchers, the program gave students hands-on experience in isolating their own DNA, staining bacteria, observing living organisms under microscopes and modeling proteins with bioinformatics tools. Students also took part in experiments, presentations and scientific competitions.
To assess the project’s long-term impact, the team reconnected with participants in September 2026. According to the follow-up, 84 percent of those reached had gone on to undergraduate study in health sciences, basic sciences or engineering and were enrolled in degree programs in these fields.
