Portraits of Pride
Pinar Polat, The Turkish Times National Grassroots Editor pinarpolat@hotmail.com

At the same show, Tulay Ozerol, was also selected as a finalists for her fashion show featuring modernized Turkish kaftans. As the winners for the Europe and Central Asia category the troupe and Ozerol will represent this region of the world at the actual "Celebration of Cultures" event held on December 12th , which consists of 13 finalist performances from around the world reflecting the diverse facets of the World Bank community. Congratulations and good luck!

Kris Aldemir has been recognized with the Award of Achievement of the Ohio Association of Realtors. The award criteria include $1 million in sales or commercial leases or 25 sale/lease transaction credits per year.

Highlighted Individuals
Mesut Baris Uzman is a 29 year old engineer from Pittsburgh, PA. Born in Eskisehir, Turkey he graduated valedictorian of the Anadolu University Electrical Engineering Department in 1993. He went on to receive his Masters from Ohio State University where he concentrated on the area of Control Systems and worked under the guidance of Prof. Hitay Ozbay. After receiving his masters he began working for the Nuclear Automation department of the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh and married his wife, Sezin Sinmaz. During this time he served as the treasurer of the Pittsburgh Turkish American Association (PTAA). As treasurer, Mr. Uzman upgraded the paper-based financial system of the PTAA to a fully automated and online process, enabling members to access this information with greater ease. In 2001 he was promoted to Senior Design Engineer and to Principal Design Engineer only a year later. The Principal Design Engineer position is usually attained following 10+ years of experience in the field, but Mr. Uzman was promoted earlier. Today, he is the proud father of twins, Berk Tolga and Selin Ceren, an Engineering Project Manager and the president of PTAA! Mr. Uzman has grand visions for the future of PTAA and with his obvious talents and ability there is little doubt he will be successful in realizing them.

Suleyman Gokoglu of Cleveland, OH is the Project Scientist for a NASA space experiment called Water Mist. The Mist project is a study of the properties of water mist fire-suppression in microgravity. Water mist fire-suppression systems are used to suppress fires on board ships and aircraft. Water mist is favored to liquid water because it is lighter and causes less damage to electronic equipment and other valuables found aboard ships and aircraft.

The results of the Mist project will enable scientists to refine computerized models of the mist fire-suppression process. This research will eventually lead to a much more effective water mist fire-suppression system which is

The Mist experiment is scheduled to fly aboard the Columbia shuttle’s STS-107 mission on January 16th, 2003. For more information on the Mist project refer to microgravity.grc. nasa.gov.