Dr. Ziya Aktas was born in 1940. He got his BS and MS in 1962 and 1963, respectively, both at METU (Middle East Technical University) in Ankara. He had a Fulbright Scholarship in 1966 and went to the USA for graduate study. He received his Ph.D. in 1969 at Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania/USA. He returned home in the same year and joined today’s Department of Computer Engineering at METU. He visited Vienna Technical University as an associate professor during the school year 1973-1974. He became a full professor in 1978, and was the first full professor of Computer Science/Engineering in Turkey.Prof.Aktas served as the chairman of the Department during 1977-81 and 1983-1988. Prof.Aktas taught at Purdue University School of Engineering and Technology at Indianapolis, Indiana, USA, between 1981-1983 as a Visiting Professor. Between 1988-1991 he became the founding General Manager of a technical consultancy firm, STRABIS, in Ankara.He is the author of the book “Structured Analysis and Design of Information Systems” published by Prentice Hall in 1987 in the USA.

He has been a faculty member of the Department of Computer Engineering, METU and also served as the Vice President of State Institute of Statistics (SIS) of Turkey in charge of Information Systems during 1992-1995. In the general elections of December 1994 and April 1999 he was elected as the Deputy of Istanbul in the Democratic Left Party ( DSP ) to the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Prof.Aktas had served as the Minister of Energy and Natural Resources in the Ecevit’s Cabinet during January 11-May 28, 1999. He has been a member of IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union) and Chairman of the Information and Information Technology Group in the Turkish Parliament and Vice President of Turkish - US Interparliamentarian Friendship Group.

May 24 ,2004-2007 he was the President (rector) of Çankaya University – Ankara. Prior to that he served as Acting Rector at the same university during 07.11.2003 – 24.05.2004 . He also served as the Dean of School of Engineering and Architecture of Çankaya University. Prof.Aktas is a member of ACM, TBD and a Board Member of TBV.