Ilayda Acaroglu Degitz, Ph.D. Email & Phone Number

Greeley, Colorado, United States

Greeley, Colorado, United States

Denver, Colorado, United States

➤ Efficiently managed a fast-paced environment as the Executive Assistant to the CEO, ensuring meticulous attention to detail and smooth operations.➤ Built and led a highly productive team of three executive assistants, driving seamless collaboration and supporting the company during tax season.➤ Fostered strong relationships with other departments to ensure collaboration and alignment across the organization, while also coordinating with the HR department in the recruitment process.➤ Played an instrumental role in developing and implementing streamlined firm procedures, providing expert guidance and support to team members throughout the process.➤ Led engaging team meetings to define priorities, establish goals, and review progress, while also orchestrating productive collaborations with external stakeholders to meet collective objectives.➤ Handled high-priority issues with discretion and protected company confidentiality and provided guidance and training to team members following similar confidential protocols.➤ Coordinated with team members to ensure the CEO's schedule was prioritized and efficiently managed, while also providing support and direction to the team to ensure all tasks were completed on time and to a high standard.➤ Managed daily and weekly reports and proposals as well as business calendars and meetings and maintained new client information on CRM.

Istanbul, Turkey

➤ Led and mentored a team of 15 junior specialists, delegating project tasks, providing guidance, and overseeing their work in the research, analysis, and testing of cutting-edge edible film formulations for the targeted delivery of probiotics and nutritional supplements.➤ Successfully completed a research project on edible film formulations for the delivery of probiotics within the allocated time and budget. ➤ Prepared the R&D Department for its inaugural audit, diligently handling all paperwork, documentation, and necessary preparations, resulting in a successful audit outcome and compliance with all requirements.➤ Created, conceived, and proposed four collaborative projects with international and domestic academic, business, and government partners and held weekly and monthly coordination and status updates.➤ Designed chemical structure and managed testing and development of antimicrobial food-packaging formulations, antimicrobial food-preserving solutions, and antimicrobial wound-healing gel formulations. ➤ Thoroughly explored potential funding opportunities for five promising projects by actively researching potential funding partners, conducting market analysis, and gathering competitive intelligence.➤ Initiated and built relationships with HORIZON-2020 partners serving as the central point of communication, and authored HORIZON European Green Deal proposals for EUR 6 million in funding.➤ Assessed chemical inventory requirements for six development projects with a total budget of $600K.

Istanbul, Turkey

➤ Spearheaded two projects and collaborated with colleagues on three others, successfully synthesizing different surface-grafted polymer brushes via ring-opening metathesis polymerization. Conducted in-depth investigations into the structure-property relationship to uncover their antimicrobial activity. ➤ Authored and collaborated on the publication of three peer-reviewed scientific papers, uncovering the vast potential applications of ROMP polymers. ➤ Spearheaded and directed 3 junior scientists and 2 Ph.D. students, providing comprehensive supervision and guidance throughout critical projects on iron nanoparticle synthesis, dendrimer-iron nanoparticle conjugation, controlled polymer synthesis, and polymer-drug conjugation and characterizations.➤ Conducted rigorous cytotoxicity testing of ROMP polymers on the HUVEC cell line using the MTS assay, while also evaluating their antimicrobial properties through the MIC assay protocol.

Istanbul, Turkey

➤ Synthesis and characterization of cationic monomer and polymers.➤ Conjugation and characterization of antibiotic-polymers ➤ Evaluation of antibacterial activity➤ Stability studies ➤ Cell culture and cytotoxicity tests (MTS assay)

İstanbul, Türkiye

➤ Authored doctoral dissertation titled “The Conjugation of Vancomycin and Antibacterial Polymers to Investigate the Synergistic Antibacterial Activity” funded by TUBITAK the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey and published the first and second chapters of the doctoral dissertation in the peer-reviewed journals.➤ Successfully synthesized cationic polymers with inherent antimicrobial activity and embarked on a transformative exploration of the synergistic evolution of vancomycin-polymer conjugates.➤ Developed and validated two HPLC methods: one for the analysis of polymer-antibiotic conjugation and another for conducting stability tests on polymers and conjugates. These methods were utilized to assess the stability and confirm the conjugation of polymers with antibiotics in water and serum.➤ Researched targeted drug delivery for an anti-cancer drug (Paclitaxel) and gave two oral presentations at international conferences.➤ Received monthlong training in cell culturing and cell proliferation from the Department of Bioengineering & Genetics and conducted independent research in HUVEC cells and applied MTS assay.➤ Served as Chief Laboratory Assistant for two laboratories and as Teaching Assistant for more than six Chemical Engineering laboratory courses.➤ Instructed 28 students in Instrumental Analysis, and Process Control & Dynamics and proctored and graded exams for chemistry courses.➤ Streamlined student and Engineering Faculty paperwork processes, reducing processing time and improving effectiveness.

Eindhoven, The Netherlands

➤ Coordinated with nine colleagues researching the optimization of multi-junction solar cells ➤ Conducted laboratory research and presented findings to more than 20 members of university faculty

➤ Teamed with chemical engineering colleagues on Boron-based product development and research ➤ Supervised and monitored undergraduate students and collaborated with chemical engineering faculty

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Chemical Engineering

Yeditepe University is the second-largest non-profit private university in Istanbul, Turkey offering education at 13 faculties, 2 schools.

Master Of Science (Msc), Chemical Engineering

Yildiz Technical University (YTU) is an outstanding public university that is consistently ranked among the top three engineering.

Master Of Science - Ms, Chemical Engineering And Chemistry

Technische Universiteit Eindhoven (TU/e) is a highly respected public technical university that has been ranked 99th in the world, 34th.

Bachelor Of Science - Bs, Chemical Engineering