I am a Professor of Psychology at Koç University, Istanbul and the director of Language and Cognition Lab. I study language and thought interactions at different age groups and populations, employing methods and perspectives from the developmental, linguistic, neuropsychological, and cognitive science literatures. I focus on interdisciplinary, multi-method, multimodal, cross-linguistic research, and multilevel analyses.
I received The Science Academy, Turkey’s Young Scientist Award BAGEP in 2015, James S. McDonnell Foundation Human Cognition Scholar Award in 2017, and Turkish Academy of Science Outstanding Young Scientist Award in 2018. In 2020, I was elected to the Young Academy of Europe. In 2021, I received the Tübitak Incentive Award. I am an elected board member of the Cognitive Science Society, and served as the Secretary General in the board of the International Society for Gesture Studies between 2017-2022. I am an Associate Editor for the journals Infancy, Journal of Cognition & Development, and Cognitive Science.