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Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil

KICP Fellow

Ph.D., University of Minnesota Twin Cities, 2017
 
Contact Information
Email: burcinmpuchicago.edu
WWW: Web Site

 
Research
Dr. Burcin Mutlu-Pakdil is searching for the most peculiar objects in the Universe. Her research has led to a discovery of an extremely rare galaxy with a unique circular structure, which is now commonly referred to as Burcin's Galaxy. Her work has provided the first description of a double-ringed elliptical galaxy, challenging current theories and assumptions about how the universe works and how galaxies start and evolve.

Mutlu-Pakdil earned her PhD at the University of Minnesota, and her undergraduate degree is from Bilkent University in Turkey. She is currently a postdoctoral research associate at University of Arizona and a 2018 TED Fellow. She spends most of her time searching for hierarchical structure at the scale of dwarf galaxies as a novel test of the Cold Dark Matter paradigm. She uses data gathered in a large range of wavelengths from premier telescopes worldwide and wants to learn more about how the Universe came to be the way it is today.