Istinye University Physicists Honored with Breakthrough Prizes for Two Consecutive Years

Researchers from Istinye University’s High Energy Particle Physics Research Group have achieved significant international recognition by contributing to the Breakthrough Prize, one of the world’s most prestigious scientific awards, in both 2025 and 2026.

The Breakthrough Prize is one of the world’s most prominent scientific awards, honoring major achievements in fundamental physics, life sciences, and mathematics. By celebrating individual accomplishments, the Breakthrough Prize Foundation aims to highlight scientists as heroes of society and inspire future generations of researchers.

The 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded to the co-authors of studies published between 2015 and 2024 by the ATLAS, CMS, ALICE, and LHCb experimental collaborations, based on Run 2 data collected at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider. ATLAS and CMS, the two general-purpose experiments, used Run 2 data to conduct extensive searches for new physics phenomena, including supersymmetry, heavy resonances, and dark matter, establishing important constraints on these scenarios.

Istinye University Researchers Contribute to International Success for Two Consecutive Years

Members of Istinye University’s High Energy Particle Physics Research Group—Ece Aşılar, Andrew Beddall, Emre Çelebi, Serkant Ali Çetin, Candan Dözen, Aydın Özbey, Veysi Erkcan Özcan, Sertaç Öztürk, Ahmet Renklioğlu, Sinem Şimşek, Taylan Yetkin, and Zekeriya Uysal—were among the recipients of the 2025 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics through their contributions to the ATLAS and CMS experiments. Adjunct researchers Giulio Aielli, Metin Arık, Anatoli Romaniouk, and Sezen Sekmen were also among those who contributed to this significant achievement.

The 2026 Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics was awarded to scientists involved in the Muon g-2 collaborations at CERN, Brookhaven National Laboratory, and Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. The prize recognized three generations of experiments that, over more than half a century, progressively improved the experimental precision in determining the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. By comparing the results with theoretical predictions, these experiments enabled tests of new physics beyond the Standard Model. Selçuk Hacıömeroğlu, a member of Istinye University’s High Energy Particle Physics Research Group, was also among the prize recipients for his contributions at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory.

Commenting on the achievement, Prof. Serkant Ali Çetin, National Coordinator of the CERN ATLAS Experiment and Head of the Department of Basic Sciences at Istinye University, stated that the University’s High Energy Particle Physics Research Group is the largest research group in this field among universities in Türkiye. He also noted that the University’s PhD Program in Physics is thematically focused on high energy particle physics.

Prof. Çetin stated that, in line with the responsibility arising from this capacity, their primary motivation is to contribute to Türkiye’s international scientific achievements. He added that they aim to transfer their international research experience to local research and product development activities and to train a new generation of researchers working at the intersection of basic sciences, engineering, health sciences, and other applied disciplines. He emphasized that every achievement demonstrates that they are progressing in the right direction.