Öktem elected first female Balkan Physical Union president
Yeşim Öktem was voted President of the Balkan Physical Union during an election, held in Constanta, Romania, on 6 July this year. Öktem, an associate professor of Physics at Istanbul University, will be the first female president of the Balkan Physical Union. Her term will last three years.
Öktem, is also the Deputy Chair of the Turkish Physical Society, Vice-Dean of the Istanbul University Science Faculty, a member of the Advisory Board of the Turkey Atomic Energy Agency and a board member of the European Physical Society’s Nuclear Physics Division.
In the same elections – which were held during the 8th Balkan Physical Union General Conference – European Physical Society Executive Committee member Goran Djordjevic was elected Vice President of the Balkan Physical Union. In addition, Athanasios Lambros was appointed as General Secretary; Radu Constantinescu as Scientific Secretary; and Nicolai Tonchev as Scientific Project Coordinator.
The Balkan Physical Union was founded, as a non-profit organisation, in 1985. It exists to provide an environment of solidarity for, and to promote ties amongst, Balkan scientists.
The union is composed of the Albanian Physical Society, the Union of Physicists in Bulgaria, the Cyprus Physical Society, the Hellenic Physical Society, the Society of Physicists of Macedonia, the Moldovan Physical Society, the Physical Society of Montenegro, the Romanian Physical Society, the Serbian Physical Society and the Turkish Physical Society.
