| This
is a story of a young Turkish scientist, Serkan Bozkurt who is a foreign
exchange visitor at The Earthquake and Volcano Deformation and Stress
Triggering Research Group within the US Geological Survey (USGS), visiting
from Turkey since January 2002. Over the past two and a half years
that Serkan has been with the USGS, he has accomplished an array of
aims and objectives for the team as well as in his specialization.
His most recent story of success is his contribution to a documentary
called “Forces of Nature” a new National Geographic IMAX
film that opened in summer 2004. Ross Stein, a Geophysicist who has
been in the USGS, Earthquake Hazards Team since 1981, and is also Serkan’s
boss, worked on the movie and appears as the lead scientist |
|
in
one of the three segments dedicated to earthquakes. Serkan
takes credits for the graphics and computer animations (for the earthquake
section of the film), his help with guiding Ross Stein to his hometown
of Izmit and Istanbul (for the shooting of the film) and also his
brief role in the movie.“Forces of Nature” is more of
a roller coaster ride than a science documentary, with great footage
and computer animations. Narrated by Kevin Bacon, the film introduces
you to three scientists: Marie Edmonds, Ross Stein, and Josh Wurman,
striving to understand and forecast three main natural disasters:
volcanoes, earthquakes and tornados. The section on earthquakes is
mainly dedicated to the recent earthquakes of Izmit in 1999. Scenes
from Izmit and |
|
Istanbul are generously shown, as Izmit is a living laboratory for geologists studying
earthquakes, and Istanbul is forecast to be the next target for a
major hit in the near future. Interesting for Californians is the
realization that the North Anatolian Fault line and San Andreas Fault
line of California show exactly the same characteristics from length
to strength. This is why this film is even more meaningful to scientists
and wider audiences other than Turkey where the earthquake occurred.
A MULTI - TALENTED MIND AND HARD WORKER…
Serkan
Bozkurt has been working as a GIS specialist focusing on DEM (digital
elevation models) and computer mapping in Ross Stein’s research
group. In addition to GIS analysis, Serkan creates computer animations
of earthquake phenomena designed for public
and scientific presentations, which he says is ‘one of the
most exciting parts of his job’. |
|
His
work has been published in prominent industrial journals such as
Nature Journal and Scientific American, and
one of his GIS images became the cover image of September 5, 2002 issue
of Nature Journal (http://sicarius.wr. - usgs.gov/).
Another task of Serkan’s is to develop the group web site, which
is the major portal serving the public and other scientists for technical
and non-technical summaries of their research, published reports, press
articles and their work, and materials for students and teachers. This
is important because the website is the main link between the team,
the public and other scientists around the world (http://quake.wr.usgs. - gov/~ross).
Serkan Bozkurt, age 29, is a graduate of Mimar Sinan University in
Istanbul, with a BS degree in Urban and Regional Planning (1996) and
a MS degree in Geographical Information Systems-GIS (2000). Serkan
has started his professional career in Istanbul at an urban & transportation
planning office called Ulasim-Art. He then worked as a Principal GIS-GPS
Specialist at TED Ltd. Sti. Istanbul, Turkey, which is an extension
of a U.S. company called IMAGINS (Interactive Media and Geographic
Information Systems, Inc.), located at Port Hueneme, CA. |
