Selman Akbulut
Photo courtesy of Selman Akbulut.
Selman Akbulut was first an undergraduate and then a graduate student at UC Berkeley from 1967–1975, thereby missing his mandatory military service in his home country, Turkey, and also forfeiting his right to return. In the late 80s, The Turkish government changed its policy and allowed individuals like Akbulut, who had spent years abroad, to return, provided they performed a three-month military service. During his service, Selman discovered a military camp adjacent to the town of Akyaka on the Bay of Gökova. Next to the camp was the Hotel Yücelen, whose owner Akbulut convinced to host an annual math conference during Memorial Day week. Since then, the hotel has offered consistently favorable rates that amount to a subsidy comparable to the conference grants from the US NSF and from the Turkish NSF (TÜBITAK). The conference has run almost every year since 1992, with local organization done by Turgut Onder, a topologist at Middle East Technical University in Ankara. (Onder was a Ph.D. student of Emery Thomas, and graduated in 1979.)
The hotel owner was influential in the creation of the Gökova Geometry Topology Institute and the construction of the institute building. See: gokovagt.org/institute/.
