Hey there
My name is Tugce, pronounced as 2Che.
I am an evolutionary biologist, yoga teacher and a scientific lecturer in Zürich, Switzerland. I also give workshops on creative coding.
Why Evolution?
As a kid, I dreamt of world where I could befriend animals, understand what they think of. I suspected we must be very similar, similarly playful, similarly social. But how do we appear so different? At the age of 10, I read a children’s book by Billy Aronson on DNA, which piqued my interest (check out the spooky cover on the right). Later at high school, our biology teacher, Herr Dittberner told us about evolution and how mutations shape us and the nature. I was fascinated! That’s how I decided to delve into evolutionary research.
Scientific Teaching
I heard about evolution at high school and it shaped my career line! This shows the value of teaching science to young minds. In 2014, I finished my PhD on computational evolutionary biology at the famous Andreas Wagner Lab at the University of Zürich. There I also had my first pedagogical training, and instantly I became sure I wanted to become an educator. It took me some more years as a postdoc in Switzerland to land on my first teaching job in New York.
In 2019, I became a lecturer at Columbia University at the Frontiers of Science Program to teach scientific method to all majors of the college. I also worked in Brooklyn College, teaching scientific coding as part of a special program for kids from underrepresented backgrounds. In 2023, I returned to Switzerland, where I work as a full-time senior lecturer in Zürich Applied University of Science.
Scientific Outreach
Scientific outreach to young people especially in developing countries is my passion. I do various activities, such as organising, and teaching workshops, writing popular science articles/books and giving talks to non-scientific audience. I am the proud founder and co-organizer of a 10-years old summer school in Evolutionary Genomics. We organize this school every year with a dozen colleagues for a week. We have brought completely free evolution education to more 250 students so far.
Creative CODING
I began teaching Creative Coding at the Pratt Institute of Art and Design. Since then, I noticed the power of creative activities on making scientists more creative. We began to sweep science under the umbrella of technology and data science. However science is not only about positive results, increased efficiency, decreased costs. The game is not optimization. It is exploration. It is finding novel routes, and novel connections. It is being open minded, being critical of the existing realm, challenging the known in order to reach the unknown. In this regard, the creative world is very helpful to remind scientists who they are.
Yoga
Since early ages, I’ve been involved in various dance groups, and physical activities. What however changed me most is hot yoga! It ensures a healthy spine, strong and relaxed muscles and a focused mind! I decided to become a hot yoga teacher in order to bring yoga to everyone and show that it is accessible to ‘everyBody’! You can check out my successful crowdfunding called ‘Yoga knows no disability’ which sponsored my yoga training. Since my arrival in New York, I taugt in Fierce Grace NY Studio in Lower East Side, free outdoor yoga in Roosevelt Island, a studio space I personally rented and in Roosevelt Island yoga studio.
Side Businesses
I like writing short stories and essays. Also, as a modern art admirer, I enjoy abstract painting ad sell my acrylic paints.
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