Dr. Derya Oktay (PhD, YTU & Oxford Brookes Univ; PgDipUD, Oxford Brookes Univ; MSc, Middle East Technical Univ; BArch, Gazi Univ) is an architect, urban designer, researcher, and educator. She is currently an architecture and urban design professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Design at Maltepe University, Istanbul. Before this, she was the founding Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and the founding Chair of the Department of Architecture at Ondokuz Mayis University; a Professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Eastern Mediterranean University, N. Cyprus, founding Director of the MS in Urban Design Program, and founding Director of the Urban Research & Development Center (URDC); she was an Assistant Professor at Yildiz Technical University, Istanbul, before her service in Cyprus. She was the elected President of the Society for International Development (SID) Lefkosa Chapter in Cyprus and was recently elected as a member of the World Renewable Energy Network Management Board (WREN). Her research areas are sustainable/green urbanism and architecture, architectural design in the urban context, public spaces, housing and quality of urban life. She has experience in qualitative and empirical research funded by the EU, USAID, TUBITAK, and EMU. She is the author of numerous publications including books, chapters in international refereed books, journal articles, conference papers, and popular press articles. She has also spoken on various platforms as an invited or keynote speaker. She has developed and offered various courses focusing mainly on architectural design in the local/urban context, urban design theory and principles, contemporary approaches in urban design, sustainable developments, and public spaces; and has founded new undergraduate and graduate programmes at the two universities. She was a visiting professor/scholar at the University of California-Berkeley, Politecnico di Milano, University of Michigan, Oxford Brookes University, and Pratt Institute, NY.Oktay holds the (elected) position of Editor-in-Chief of Ekistics and the New Habitat journal and has been serving on the editorial board of leading international journals. She is the receiver of the 'WREN PIONEER AWARD 2021', and was recognized by Stanford University researchers as one of the most distinguished academics, consistently ranking among the top 2% of scientists globally and the top 1% in Architecture since 2020). She serves as a panel member in research institutes and as a juror in awards programs and design competitions including major ones.