{"id":6703,"date":"2024-04-15T10:20:26","date_gmt":"2024-04-15T07:20:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/?p=6703"},"modified":"2024-04-16T14:31:28","modified_gmt":"2024-04-16T11:31:28","slug":"april-3rd-bilkent-day-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/?p=6703","title":{"rendered":"April 3rd, Bilkent Day 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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

This year, 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 the Bilkent University\u2019s vision: \u201cToday, we gather to commemorate our esteemed founder Professor \u0130hsan Do\u011framac\u0131, who passed away fourteen years ago, on his 109th birthday anniversary. On April 3rd, which is also celebrated as “Bilkent Day,\u201d we seize the moment to reflect upon and impart to our students the enduring ethos of Bilkent University, encapsulating its core values, attained milestones and unwavering fidelity (commitment) to its founding principles.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Kale continued, \u201cBeing a member of the Bilkent community necessitates a comprehensive understanding and internalization of the visionary behind this esteemed institution, coupled with a profound grasp of its initial goals and objectives. \u0130hsan Do\u011framac\u0131 Bilkent University, in its current stature, epitomizes the pinnacle of innovation across realms of education, training, science, technology and art, stemming from its inception to its present eminence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Following Prof. Kale\u2019s speech, the event continued with the presentation, \u201cBilkent: The 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\n

Next, Prof. Roland Smith from the Department of Archaeology gave his keynote speech on \u201cNew Research and Discoveries at Aphrodisias.\u201d Prof. Smith is a well-known classicist, archaeologist and academic, specializing in the art and visual cultures of the ancient Mediterranean. From 1995 to 2022, he was Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology and Art at the University of Oxford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Smith began with these words: \u201cIt is a great honour to be asked to speak on this important Bilkent Day in honour of our founder and to represent the vibrant archaeology department of the university.\u201d
Prof. Smith described the continuing archaeological work at Aphrodisias and the importance of this UNESCO world heritage site for understanding the strange, over-specified monumental culture of Anatolia in the Roman period. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

The long Roman peace saw the sustained and energetic construction, both practical and symbolic, that produced the huge quantity of durable \u201cclassical\u201d remains that can be seen all over modern T\u00fcrkiye. Aphrodisias is one of the best-preserved examples of a political culture of benefaction and honour, whose currency was buildings, carved marbles and inscriptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prof. Smith thanked the Ministry of Culture and Tourism for their fruitful collaboration and fundamental permissions as well as the project\u2019s generous sponsors and donors that make work at the site possible.
Prof. Smith then talked about the recent excavations and projects in the city\u2019s Basilica with its inscribed Edict of Maximum Prices of the Emperor Diocletian; in the grand Urban Park and its 170m pool; and on the Tetrapylon Street with the exciting finds fallen from the late antique apartments above it. He explained a new project on housing and urban living, which includes the excavation of parts of a neighbourhood around the House of Kybele, and showed the recent restoration of parts of the Corinthian temple in the Sanctuary of the Emperors (Sebasteion).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He ended his talk with a description of the latest marble conservation and statue research through one example \u2014 a striking new statue of the Emperor Tiberius in the form of a classical Zeus.<\/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. The performance began at 8 p.m. with G\u00fcrer Aykal as conductor and G\u00fclsin Onay as piano soloist. The program featured M\u00e1 Vlast, \u201cMoldau\u201d by B. Smetana, Kaiserwalzer, Op. 437 by J. Strauss and Piano Concerto No. 12 by W. A. Mozart. Pianist G\u00fclsin Onay also performed Chopin’s Polonaise Opus 53, a favorite piece of Prof. \u0130hsan Do\u011framac\u0131. The program included a performance of the works selected by the jury in the \u0130hsan Do\u011framac\u0131 Composition Competition. The first three awardees were Mithat Can \u00d6cal (1st prize), Massimo Lauricella (2nd prize) and Ak\u0131n Kilis (3rd prize). Honorable mention awards went to \u0130layda Deniz O\u011fuz, Hasan Niyazi Turba and Roberto Sansuini.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>","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. This year, all of the day\u2019s events took place in the Bilkent Concert Hall.[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6706,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4,80],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6703"}],"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=6703"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6703\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6713,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6703\/revisions\/6713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bilkentnews.bilkent.edu.tr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}