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Iskender Gökalp
Solar Powered
Sciences and Technologies of Information
and Engineering (ST2I)
Though he is the one being interviewed,
Iskender Gökalp, the 53 year-old director
of the Combustion and Reactive Systems Laboratory
(LCSR)1 in Orléans,
turns the tables: “Tell me about yourself,”
he asks the interviewer. And this first
sentence provides a lot of insight into
the man: curious, humble, attentive–yet
determined. When he arrived from Istanbul–thirty
years ago–he was quick to impose both
his style and his research interests on
a topic that was undergoing a major revolution
at the time: the analysis of combustion
in turbulent flows. Gökalp's French
adventure began in 1975 at the Aerothermodynamics
Laboratory in Meudon,2
where he prepared a doctoral thesis in collaboration
with the Paris-based General Chemistry Laboratory.3
Before defending his thesis in 1981, Gökalp
also worked as a teaching assistant in a
training and research unit in mechanics.
For this
dedicated scientist, a dream came true
in 1983 when he was hired as a junior
researcher at LCSR. “For me, the
position at CNRS meant that I had finally
achieved independence and it gave me
the opportunity to build ambitious research
programs.” Gökalp's field
of study was going through a period
of enormous change.
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“In the early 1970s, researchers were
simply improving combustion efficiency in
various energy systems,” he explains.
“Since then, we have come to realize
that fossil resources are neither eternal
nor totally harmless to the environment.
The laboratory evolved under these new constraints
and began to take a closer look at the 'sustainable
development' aspects in both combustion
and reactive systems.” And this work
is vital for industry. The objective is
to improve combustion processes (in everything
from car engines to aerospace propulsion
systems and gas turbines) using low-fuel
mixtures to reduce both carbon dioxide and
nitrogen oxide emissions. But researchers
are also striving to find new energy sources
by developing alternative fuels and biofuels
such as rapeseed oil, biomass gasification
products, or gases recovered from industrial
waste.4 Gökalp is
already looking further ahead with a European
project he has named Essperans,5
intended to diversify energy sources through
solar power. “It's quite a simple
idea: to install photovoltaic platforms
in sunny regions that will convert solar
energy into electricity and, in the long
term, put them in orbit around the Earth.”
Science fiction? Not for Gökalp, who
swears by interdisciplinarity. From the
start of his career, this research scientist
has handpicked a team with extensive expertise,
established numerous partnerships, and nurtured
a passionate interest in just about everything.6
“Basic research has left its ivory
tower,” he exults, and “unforeseen
applications always crop up.” Basic
research also occasionally links both his
countries in the form of joint projects
between the universities of Istanbul and
Orléans, Tubitak,7
and CNRS. “Turkey is the only European
country significantly involved in all types
of renewable energy. It has an important
role to play in the future of European energy,”
says the determined pro-European activist.
1. Laboratoire de combustion
et systèmes réactifs (CNRS
lab).
2. Laboratoire d'aérothermique
(CNRS lab).
3. Laboratoire de chimie
générale (Université
Paris-VI).
4. The Alternative Fuels
for Industrial Gas Turbines programs (AFTUR),
coordinated by LCSR in Orléans, includes
22 academic and industrial partners.
5. Essperans stands for
Energy, Space, Solar Power, Environment:
Research Actions for a New Society.
6. Gökalp is also
the Director of the EPEE Federation (European
Partnership for Energy and the Environment)
which includes several research units; an
Official Representative of the CNRT “Propulsion
of the Future” and President of the
Federation of European Sections of the Combustion
Institute.
7. CNRS' Turkish equivalent.
Gökalp is also a member of the Tubitak
Scientific Council.
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