Drexel President John Fry Leads Delegation to Turkey

Drexel President John Fry (lower left) meets with the President of Istanbul Technical University, Muhammed Sahin (lower right), during the delegation's visit to the city.

Drexel University President John Fry led a delegation of University administrators, faculty from Drexel’s School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems and College of Engineering, and representatives from Duke University and The Johns Hopkins University and industry partners through a five-day tour of Turkey’s epicenters for research and technological innovation. This Innovation Partnership Forum Delegation, spent time at some of the nation’s top universities, visited innovative “technoparks” and participated in a national biomedical engineering summit.

The trip, which was organized by Dr. Banu Onaral, director of the School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems was designed to give delegates an opportunity to meet leaders of the “regional innovation movements” in the cities of Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir and share best practices in converting academic research into social good and economic value. 

“The future of translational research at Drexel is based on coordinating our efforts with like-minded institutions and industry leaders,” Fry said. “Our trip to Turkey provided an opportunity to forge international collaborations in hopes of continuing our work to develop technologies that improve health and quality of life around the world.”

“The future of translational research at Drexel is based on coordinating our efforts with like-minded institutions and industry leaders,” Fry said. “Our trip to Turkey provided an opportunity to forge international collaborations in hopes of continuing our work to develop technologies that improve health and quality of life around the world.”

The Drexel group traveled to Ankara and visited technoparks linked to the Middle East Technical University and Bilkent University and returned to visit Teknopark Istanbul.  Technoparks are intended to create synergistic relationships among universities, researchers in science and technology, industry and government that bolster the regional economy and drive progress in technological innovation.

Coinciding with Drexel’s Global Night of Networking, the University held an evening reception for alumni, friends, industry and university colleagues, prospective students and parents on April 19. President Fry shared his vision of innovation partnerships at the alumni gathering.

In Izmir, the final destination on the trip, members of the delegation toured the construction of Dokuz Eylul University’s Advanced Biomedical Research Center, met with administrators from the school and Ege University and learned about the formation of InovIZ- Ismir’s research and innovation partnership.

The trip reaffirmed Drexel’s commitment to international academic and research collaborations, which include recent partnerships with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, the Shanghai Advanced Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and The Institute for Drug Research of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as well as Drexel’s emphasis on translational research.