Fuat Ince is a native of Istanbul. He received his BS degree in electrical engineering from Bogazici University there in 1968. He attended University of Illinois on a Fulbright Fellowship where he was awarded the MS degree in 1969 and the PhD degree in 1973, all in electrical engineering. He also earned a private pilot’s license there, while working as a research assistant at the Aviation Research Lab of the university on a US Air Force project.

Upon returning to Turkey, he joined TUBITAK, the Turkish Technical and Scientific Research Council, as a research scientist/engineer, later being promoted to the senior level. Between 1979 and 1985 he worked at the Research Institute of the King Fahad University of Petroleum and Minerals in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, under the direction of the late Dr Pickering, ex-director of NASA JPL. He established the remote sensing laboratory there which was used for geological and thematic mapping of the Kingdom using satellite imagery. One of his projects earned an excellence award from SANCST, Saudi Arabian Center for Science and Technology.

In 1986 Dr Ince returned to Turkey to join a defense industry company, STFA Savronik, as the information systems director. In 1990 he accepted an offer from TUBITAK again, to become the vice president for informatics and space, at the TUBITAK Marmara Research Center. At that position he led the effort to bring internet service to the research community around Istanbul in April 1993. In 1995 he was appointed as the founding director of the TUBITAK Informatics Research Institute, which was established on his initiative.

Dr Ince left TUBITAK in 1999 accepting positions from two new private universities as the department head of the computer science/engineering departments, to help them start those departments. He later became the head of the computer science/engineering department at a large government university. He opted for early retirement from Marmara University in 2009 to serve as an industry consultant. He has continued to teach at the Turkish Air Force Academy and at the Turkish War College since then on a part time basis.

During his career Dr Ince has served in numerous national and international committees and working groups, among which are: Chairman of the National Committee on Space Science and Technology; Turkish Delegate to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space; Vice President of EDIG (European Defense Industries Group) Technical Committee; Member of NATO Information Systems Technology Panel; and a number of classified projects.

Dr Ince is the editor of seven books and the author of a number of research papers as well as the recipient of service and research awards. He is currently writing science and technology news and articles on a Turkish web site, www.bilimania.com . He has also started working as a member of the executive board of NUTEK Inc., the principal nuclear consulting group in Turkey.