Bilge Yildiz digs deep into surfaces of matter
Academics were always important for Bilge Yildiz, the daughter of two math teachers, as she was growing up in and around Izmir, Turkey. Her parents, Yildiz says, were her inspiration for appreciating “the importance of education and hard work.” But they never wanted to teach her math at home — instead expecting her to go figure out, for herself, whatever she needed to know. This, Yildiz says, was perhaps one of the most important things she learned from her parents — a lesson that has helped her greatly in her career. There was an early inclination toward engineering as well, she says: “I got involved a lot with my father in exploring things at home, with repairing things — radios, heaters, lighting, photocopiers, building stone and concrete walls. It felt like there was always something being repaired at home. It was interesting, and made me curious about how things work.” By the time...