Aysegul TAYLAN OZKAN completed her primary education in Cankiri and Mugla, Turkey.
She continued her secondary and high school education at Izmir Karatas High School. She
was entitled to be a TUBITAK (The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey)
scholarship student with the exam she passed during her high school education. She
received a Sabanci Foundation scholarship during her education while studying at Ege
University Faculty of Medicine, as she placed in the top 400 in the nationwide university
entrance exam. After graduating from Ege University Faculty of Medicine, Izmir in 1989,
she completed her compulsory service in Sivas Sarkisla Central Health Center for two
years. TAYLAN OZKAN worked in Ballikuyu Health Center and Urla State Hospital in Izmir
as general practitioner. She continued her Ph.D. in Parasitology and at the same time her
second university education on Public Administration Department in Dokuz Eylul University.
In 1996, TAYLAN OZKAN was invited to carry out the responsibilities of various units in
General Directorate of Health Transition Projects Coordination, Ministry of Health, Turkey.
In 2001, she took part in the Refik Saydam National Health Center (RSNHC) and worked
as a director of Parasitology Reference Laboratory. In addition, she had been an either
director or a member of several advisory boards such as Quality, Laboratory Safety,
Hospital Infections, and several notifiable parasitic diseases such as malaria, leishmaniasis, toxoplasmosis, cystic echinococcosis. Contributed to the coordination and delivery of
hundreds of in-service trainings inside and outside the institution; she took part in
European Union Projects as an educator, coordinator and traniee. During this period,
TAYLAN OZKAN continued as the Editor of the Turkish Journal of Hygiene and Experimental
Biology from 2006 to 2012. She is currently the deputy editor of the aforementioned
journal, co-editor of PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases and a member of the Flora Journal
Editorial Board. In addition to that, she is also on the advisory board of many national
scientific journals.
With the scholarships TAYLAN OZKAN won, she studied in England, America, Japan, and
Israel during and after her doctorate degree. She was selected as a Lead Researcher by
the World Health Organization Tropical Diseases Research Fund scholarship and did her
internship in Geneva. She gained experience in providing undergraduate/postgraduate
education at different universities in the country and abroad and took part in various
research. She became Associate Professor in December 2008. In 2013, TAYLAN OZKAN
was appointed as the Head of the Microbiology Department of the Hitit University Faculty
of Medicine and gained the title of professor in 2014. Until March 2021, she served as the
Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, the Director of the Institute of Health Sciences,
the Editor of the Hitit Medical Journal, the Advisor to the Rector and the University Quality
Coordinator. Retiring in March 2021, Dr. TAYLAN OZKAN is currently working at TOBB
University of Economics and Technology, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Medical
Microbiology, Ankara. Currently, besides being a faculty member, she also carries out the
duties of coordination of the accreditation processes of the Faculty of Medicine and a
member of the University Quality Commission.
Dr. TAYLAN OZKAN’s studies mainly focused on parasitology, vector-borne diseases and
zoonoses in the field of microbiology. She also deals with laboratory safety, qualityaccreditation as well as biotherapy (hirudotherapy, apitherapy and maggot therapy). She
has worked as a chapter writer and translator in more than 40 scientific books, as a
researcher and coordinator in nearly 40 national and international projects. She has nearly
150 articles in national and international refereed journals and more than 200 papers
presented in scientific meetings. TAYLAN OZKAN is the general secretary of the
International Biotherapy Society and has been also working for YOKAK (The Higher
Education Quality Council of Turkey – THEQC) in various positions as evaluator, head of
evaluating team and mentor since 2018.