Öztop Lab is proud to announce that Dr. Esmanur İlhan Şen has received the 2026–2027 YÖK Outstanding Achievement Award for the PhD Thesis of the Year in Engineering. The award was presented during the Higher Education Academic Year Opening Ceremony by the President of the Republic of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Her doctoral thesis, “Formulation of Pickering Emulsions and Investigating the Intragastric Gelation Behavior Using Flow-Assisted MRI,” was completed at the Middle East Technical University (METU) Department of Food Engineering under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Mecit Halil Öztop and co-supervision of Prof. Dr. Behiç Mert.
The research focused on developing Pickering emulsions capable of undergoing controlled structural changes under gastric conditions. By integrating Flow-Assisted Magnetic Resonance Imaging (Flow-MRI) into in vitro digestion studies, the work enabled detailed observation of changes in food structure and flow behaviour during simulated digestion. These findings contribute to the development of functional foods with tailored digestion properties.
We congratulate Dr. Esmanur İlhan Şen and her advisors on this outstanding academic achievement and wish them continued success in their research.
