Dilhan Eryurt Astronomy Conference(DEAC) is an academic conference aiming to gather astronomy and astrophysics students and academics together to share their works. DEAC is organised by the Amateur Astronomy Society of Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey.
4 years ago as the members of the Astronomy Society, we noticed that Turkey was in need of more platforms for astronomy and astrophysics students. Platforms to share their academic works, follow the recent studies with their colleagues while having the opportunity to meet with the academics of these fields. Thus we took a step further and on 22nd of April 2017, we organised the very first DEAC, followed by the second on 7th of April 2018 and the third on 20th of April 2019. Afterwards, we have decided to organize the conference once in two years and the next DEAC will be on 10-11th of April 2021.
DEAC is named after Professor Dilhan Eryurt Ezer who was a prominent Turkish astrophysicist who made major contributions to scientific research on physics and astrophysics, especially to the theory of stellar evolution. Prof. Eryurt Ezer was the founder of the Astrophysics Division of Middle East Technical University where she was the first woman dean and the head of department of METU. Moreover, she was the first Turkish scientist who was employed at NASA. Prof. Eryurt Ezer was the only woman astronomer working at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center at that time and her discovery related to the brightness of the Sun was very crucial for the Apollo 11 Mission and uncovered that on the contrary to the common knowledge, brightness of the Sun decreases over time. She was given the Apollo Achievement Award by NASA for her discoveries since they possess major importance for the 1960-1970s space missions.
It is an honor for us to have a science conference for presenting and sharing academic research named after Dilhan Eryurt. As organisers of this conference, we are university students that admire the night sky and look up to scientists such as Dilhan Eryurt.
More announcements about the 4th DEAC
Previously organized DEACs (in Turkish)