Gonul O. PEKER, PT, MS, PhD

11.04.2022

• Founding Secretary and Honorary President, Neuroscience Society of Turkey; Founder, Turkey Chapter of SfN, Founding Director, IAMSE, Founder, Society for Medical Education in Turkey; Co-Director, EGE-BINGSS
• Retired Professor, Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Dept. of Physiology Izmir, Turkey

Dr. Gonul O. Peker got her physiotherapist and master of physiotherapy degrees at the Hacettepe University of Ankara, Turkey (1973). Following three years of intensive clinical practice in neurorehabilitation in the Neurology Dept. of the Ege University Faculty of Medicine, she was awarded a TUBITAK (Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey) bursary to complete her PhD in Medical Physiology in the same institute (1982). Gonul Peker had the opportunity to fulfill a short visiting post-doc privilege in the Physiology and Neuroscience Depts. of the University of Michigan College of Medicine in Ann Arbor, MI (1985), and was awarded a research fellowship by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), she did research on glutamatergic system and neurodegeneration in the University of Southampton Schools of Science and Medicine (1987) which then was followed by her promotion to associate professorship in the Physiology Dept. of the Ege University Faculty of Medicine (1988). Dr. Peker was appointed as the Vice Director of the Ege University Center for Brain Research (EUBAM) at its establishment in 1993 and served until 2007. She became a full professor in 1996 and was awarded the very first Foreign Faculty Fellowship as one of the two (simultaneously granted) Turkish women basic medical scientist instructors by the Educational Commission of Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) for training in Innovative Medical Education in the Physiology and Neuroscience Depts. of the Allegheny (later became Drexel) University of the Health Sciences, Philadelphia, PA (1997) as a visiting professor. Dr. Peker chaired or served as a member of several standing and ad-hoc committees, task forces, and initiatives related to planning and evaluation of innovative medical, health sciences, physiology, psychology, neuroscience, and (bio / medical) law & ethics in under- and post-graduate education, institutional change, and standardization and accreditation. She is among the invited founding, and later, elected board of directors of the International Association of Medical Science Educators (IAMSE, 1997-). Dr. Peker was cross-appointed as an Interim Professor and Founder of the very first Medical Education Dept., pioneering Medical and Health Sciences educational innovation in Turkey (Ege University, 1998-2007) during which she had also served the World Federation of Medical Education (WFME, 1999-2003) as an invited international advisor/viewer for generation and development of "Global Standards for Medical Education (undergraduate, post-graduate and continuing professional development)”. She featured as one of the major innovative medical curriculum planners and developers in her institution (Ege University) and elsewhere in Turkey as well as the Allegheny (Drexel) University between 1996 and 2005. She was involved in two European Union Framework Task Force Programs / Networks on “Intercultural Communication” and “Pediatrics Education in the Continuum of Life”. Gonul Peker has taught medical physiology, biological psychology, neuroscience, and neuroethics at undergraduate and graduate levels in medical as well as other health sciences, life sciences, psychology, and educational sciences schools at the Ege University.

In the highly recognized and exceptionally valued co-directorship of Prof. Reha Erzurumlu (University of Maryland, Baltimore, USA), Dr. Peker had been co-organizing the EGE-BINGSS (Ege Biennial International Neuroscience Graduate Summer School) with progressive success and accelerating recognition both national- and international-wise since 1999. Gonul Peker's research interests are neuroplasticity, neurodegeneration, and neurorepair in animal models (of Huntington's disease, aging, stress, epilepsy, spinal cord injury, global and focal cerebral ischemia, diabetic neuropathologies), and cell culture studies at behavioral, systems, cellular and molecular levels. She also researched the process and outcomes of educational innovations in terms of content and instruction and has completed the theoretical courses of her MA degree in the “Management and Governance of Education” Program at the Educational Sciences Faculty of the Ege University. Being a member of the DANA-EDAB Alliance for the Brain since their launching, Dr. Peker has pioneered in the formal and introductory education of “Neuroethics” and “Neuroscience & Society” as well as a leader in community outreach relevant to promotion of brain health and beyond for entire public, for which she was acknowledged as a “Woman Leader for Outstanding Achievement in Serving the Public” by the academic jury and the people of Izmir (2004). She is among the founding (1991) executives of the Neuroscience Society of Turkey, the Turkey Chapter of SfN (which happens also to be the very first international chapter of SfN, 2003), the (Turkish) Society for Development of Medical Education (1998), and has served IBRO and FENS on various committees. She has been among the memberships of the Society for Neuroscience (SfN), European Medical Association (EMA), Association of Medical Education in Europe (AMEE), International Neuroethics Society, and the IBRO Committee, “World Women in Neuroscience” (WWN) along with several other national and international organizations and networks.

Prof. Gönül Ö. Peker had been the Head of the Physiology Dept. of the Ege University Faculty of Medicine from 2006 to 2012 and retired in 2016.

In 2018, Professor Gönül O. Peker was honored by SfN with the International Neuroscience Teaching Award, which recognizes the outstanding celebrated contributions made by educators and advocates promoting the field of neuroscience among students and the public at large.