Prof. Metin Sitti, appointed as the new President of Koç University in fall 2023, worked as a Director at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany during 2014-2023 as the only Turkish fellow of the Max Planck Society in Germany.

Prof. Metin Sitti has opened up new horizons and achieved many scientific breakthroughs with his work on the improvement of human health at the very intersection of sciences, engineering and technology. His research encompasses a wide variety of subjects in small-scale robotics and intelligent systems, including wireless miniature medical robots, miniature robots and new materials inspired by nature, and physical intelligence.

Having completed his undergraduate studies at Boğaziçi University Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering in 1992, Sitti received his Master’s degree from the same department in 1994. He completed his doctoral research at the Tokyo University Department of Electrical Engineering in Japan in 1999. Between 1999- 2002, Sitti worked as a research scientist and lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley in the United States. Between 2002-2014, he was a tenured professor at the Robotics Institute and the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States. Between 2011-2012, he was a Visiting Professor at Harvard University, EPFL and Sorbonne University.

Prof. Metin Sitti was the recipient of the 2018 Koç University Rahmi M. Koç Medal of Science and worked as a part-time professor at Koç University School of Medicine and College of Engineering from 2018-2023.

He received the «Breakthrough of the Year» Award in Engineering and Technology at the Falling Walls World Science Summit in Berlin in 2020.

He has been a Highly Cited Researcher in 2021, 2022, and 2023 by Clarivate* and he has been elected as a Member of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) in recognition of his distinguished contributions to engineering, “for bioinspired adhesives and small-scale mobile robotics” in 2024.

• Each year, Clarivate identifies the small fraction of the global research scientists and social scientists who have demonstrated significant and broad influence in their field(s) of research.