{"id":4350,"date":"2023-04-04T16:35:46","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T13:35:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/?p=4350"},"modified":"2023-04-04T16:46:13","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T13:46:13","slug":"april-3-bilkent-day-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/?p=4350","title":{"rendered":"April 3 Bilkent Day Celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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April 3rd is the birthday of Bilkent University\u2019s founder, Prof. \u0130hsan Do\u011framac\u0131. Each year, the university community celebrates the occasion as Bilkent Day, with special events including the annual Bilkent Day Conference and a commemorative concert.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the day\u2019s events took place in the Bilkent Concert Hall. The Bilkent Day Conference opened with remarks by Prof. G\u00fclsev Kale, chair of the Board of Trustees, on Prof. Do\u011framac\u0131\u2019s ideals and continuing influence: \u201cI believe that as members of the ever-growing Bilkent family, today and on every April 3rd, it is the duty of every one of us to ensure that future generations are conscious of Professor Do\u011framac\u0131\u2019s personal values and his struggles to make his visions materialize.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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G\u00fclsev Kale<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Prof. Kale continued, \u201cHe conceived of Bilkent University as early as 1967. Today, \u0130hsan Do\u011framac\u0131\u2019s Bilkent University embraces diverse educational programs encompassing the sciences, technology and the arts. It provides an inspiring environment for students with its advanced research and learning facilities. Students are encouraged to be inquirers and thinkers in line with the fundamental aim of creating a center of excellence, which is distinguished by Bilkent\u2019s high-quality education and pride in its alumni pursuing successful careers. These are possible thanks to the wisdom and foresight of \u0130hsan Do\u011framac\u0131, who bequeathed the university to the country\u2019s youth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Rector K\u00fcr\u015fat Aydo\u011fan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Following Prof. Kale\u2019s speech, the event continued with a presentation on \u201cThe State of the University\u201d by Rector Prof. K\u00fcr\u015fat Aydo\u011fan, in which he gave a summary of the year, highlighting the university\u2019s most recent academic, educational and research accomplishments. The presentation included various statistics concerning students, faculty, research and awards as well as university budget items.
Prof. Aydo\u011fan concluded his remarks with gratitude to Hocabey: \u201cWith immense gratitude to our founder, we work with a firm dedication to build on his vision and carry this great university to further heights in education and research. Thank you all for your contributions to this mission.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

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Polat G\u00fclkan<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Next, Prof. Polat G\u00fclkan from Ba\u015fkent University\u2019s Department of Civil Engineering gave his speech, \u201cAn Engineer\u2019s Idle Thoughts on the Prediction of Earthquakes.\u201d Prof. G\u00fclkan is a well known earthquake engineer who has written many international books and articles on the subject of earthquake engineering. He served as the chairperson of the Earthquake Engineering Association. Last month he was elected as an international member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in the US. He has also set up an earthquake prevention system in Bilkent Erzurum Schools. Dr. G\u00fclkan began his speech by commemorating Prof. \u0130hsan Do\u011framac\u0131 with these words: \u201cIn 1666, after the Great Fire of London, Christopher Wren, the great architect sent by the king to replan and rebuild the city, finished his work and laid the backbone of today’s London. He is buried in his masterpiece, St. Paul’s Cathedral. If you read the epitaph, it says if you want to know what this man has done, look around you. It is the same here: if you are wondering what our esteemed professor \u0130hsan Do\u011framac\u0131 has done, all you must do is look around you at Bilkent and Hacettepe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his speech, Prof. G\u00fclkan talked about the past and present of the earthquake by referring to the aphorisms of scientists, philosophers, artists and writers such as Richard P. Feynman, Aristotle, Einstein, Hieronymus Boschen and Leonardo Da Vinci. \u201cGround motion prediction equations have a short shelf life because they are discarded soon after the next strong earthquake ground motions have been recorded by sensors. This is post-event wisdom,\u201d Prof. G\u00fclkan underlined. He talked about Turkey’s earthquake hazard and the Istanbul earthquake. He concluded, \u201cWaste no time in the futile chase for earthquake prediction. It isn\u2019t worth the bother. Some experts in the media are what Charles Richter warned against. Build safely in the traditional way because it is far more achievable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The final event of this year\u2019s Bilkent Day was a special concert by the Bilkent Symphony Orchestra, which took place in the concert hall that evening. The performance began at 8 p.m., with G\u00fcrer Aykal as conductor and G\u00fclsin Onay as piano soloist. The program featured Concerto for Piano No. 3 by Sergei Rachmaninov, \u201cThe Moldau\u201d by Bed\u0159ich Smetana and \u201cSpanish Capriccio\u201d by Nikolay Rimski-Korsakov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the concert, the choir consisted of 56 Bilkent Music Preparatory School students took their places in the concert hall and sang the Bilkent Anthem, reinforcing the meaning of the day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April 3rd is the birthday of Bilkent University\u2019s founder, Prof. \u0130hsan Do\u011framac\u0131. Each year, the university community celebrates the occasion as Bilkent Day, with special events including the annual Bilkent Day Conference and a commemorative concert. All of the day\u2019s events took place in the Bilkent Concert Hall. The Bilkent[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4352,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,80,123,1,87],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4350"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4360,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4350\/revisions\/4360"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}