Betül Kaçar

Outreach in Izmir, Turkey

BMSIS ​Young Scientist ​Gökçe Senger engaged a group of over twenty students at the Izmir Institute of Technology in Turkey​. ​ Gökçe’s engagement was part of h​er​ Communications requirements for the BMSIS Young Scientist Program. BMSIS is continuously committed to engaging the public in the wonders of Space Exploration and the Earth System. Our ​Young Scientist Program continues this tradition by engaging local communities around the world. Read Gökçe’s impressions below: First of all, let me introduce myself. My name […]

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Research Assistant in Experimental Evolution at Harvard

Research Assistant in Experimental and Molecular Evolution Harvard University Organismic and Evolutionary Biology A laboratory technician (research assistant) position is available with Dr. Betül Kacar, Group Leader within the Edwards Laboratory at the Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University. The researcher will contribute to the development of a new experimental approach that involves reconstructing ancient molecular components and observing their biological function in modern bacterial cells through experimental evolution. This will generate experimental systems consisting of viable modern-ancient […]

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Podcast: Genomes, the Fossil Record and More

Our “BlueSciCon” podcast for September features a conversation with Dr. Betul Kacar titled “Genomes, the fossil record and more: Accessing the artifacts of Earth’s earliest evolutionary history“. Living organisms today can help us understand the fossil record, as the genetic sequences of life today provides a direct link to the past. Experimental evolutionary biologists like Dr. Kacar are able to study microorganisms through hundreds and thousands of generations to understand how evolutionary selection pressures are directly expressed in these populations. […]

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BlueSciCon Episode 41: Genomes, the fossil record and more: Accessing the artifacts of Earth’s earliest evolutionary history

Dr. Betul Kacar Listen: [mp3 download] Questions to consider: What is experimental evolution? How do living microorganisms help us to better understand the fossil record? What is involved in “reconstructing” a genome? How do we understand the connection between protein functions and organism behavior? [ca_audio url=”http://beerwith.bmsis.org/BlueSciCon_41_SEP2015.mp3″ width=”500″ height=”27″ css_class=”codeart-google-mp3-player”]

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Betul Kacar’s Work Featured by Quanta

Paleogenomics involves the study of ancient genomic histories to understand the mechanisms of evolution. Dr. Betul Kacar’s experimental evolution research involves the application of ancient protients into modern E. coli to track how the microbes adapt to these changes. Dr. Kacar’s work was recently featured in Quanta magazine and represents a critical step in understanding the processes by which life evolves. [read the article at Quanta magazine]

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Reflections on EPO in Japan

The Earth-Life Science Institute in Tokyo has been rapidly developing its presence in the interdiscplinary research community, which has created the opportunity for many international scientists to visit ELSI and learn from its culture. Dr. Betul Kacar reflects on the changes she has noticed in ELSI’s culture that work toward fostering a culture of collaboration and creativity–which presents unique challenges for Japanese culture. Dr. Kacar discusses lessons from her experiences at ELSI and the role of SAGANet in helping to […]

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Wow! Signal Podcast: Cells & Planets

A new episode of the Wow! Signal Podcast features an interview with our own Betul Kacar about her astrobiological research and educational outreach. The Wow! Signal Podcast series features speculative science conversations that explore the past, present, and future of sentient beings in the universe, and this episode features discussions with Steven Dick (Library of Congress chair in astrobiology) and Betul Kacar about their own perspectives on the nature of intelligent life in the universe. Betul’s segment begins 29 minutes […]

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Search for the Origin of Life – The Movie

Search for the Origin of Life is a new documentary movie made in collaboration with the NASA Astrobiology Institute and Montana State University and distributed by PBS International. Featuring 8 astrobiologists, including BMSIS scientist Dr. Betül Kacar, the show takes a personal look at individual researchers who, through their experiments and field work, seek to understand the very beginnings of life on Earth. [Watch the full video at Montana PBS]

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Meet the Team: Dr. Betül Kaçar

This month we feature Dr. Betül Kaçar, a BMSIS research scientist and postdoctoral fellow at Georgia Tech. BMSIS: Please tell us a little about yourself Betül:I am a very curious person who wants to understand how nature works. I want to understand how history shaped the biological world that surrounds us: how and why is life the way it is now? I attempt to answer these questions in the laboratory, with the tools drawn from evolutionary, synthetic and molecular biology. […]

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