Prof. Dr. Gürkan Kumbaroğlu, who is a faculty member at the Department of Industrial Engineering and Vice Rector at Boğaziçi University, received his PhD degree from the METU Department of Industrial Engineering in 2001.

Kumbaroğlu resumed his academic career at Boğaziçi University after spending two years conducting postdoctoral research at ETH Zürich in Switzerland and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the United States. During this time, he served as a guest lecturer at several universities, including the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the RWTH Aachen University in Germany, the Universities of Sao Paulo and Campinas in Brazil, the University of Port Harcourt in Nigeria, and the METU Northern Cyprus Campus in Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

In 2011, Prof. Kumbaroğlu received Türkiye's first "Energy Oscar" award for his Scientific Contribution to Energy Industry and the Chinese Academy of Sciences also honored him with a "Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists" in 2012.

As a member of the editorial boards of "Sustainability", "Innovative Energy Policies", and "Journal of Self-Governance" and "Management Economics" journals, Prof. Kumbaroğlu has numerous scientific publications on energy and environmental modeling, economics and policies.

Prof. Dr. Kumbaroğlu held the position of Chairman of the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE) term of 2016 and now he is the Chairman of the Board of the Association for Energy Economics, and the Turkish representative of the IAEE.