TED Senior Fellow Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil studies extreme objects — including a rare double-ringed elliptical galaxy she discovered — to help us understand how galaxies form and evolve.

Why you should listen

Dr. Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil is searching for the most peculiar objects in the universe. Her research led to a discovery of an extremely rare galaxy with a unique circular structure, now commonly referred to as Burçin's Galaxy. Her work provided the first description of a double-ringed elliptical galaxy, challenging current theories and assumptions about how the universe works and how galaxies start and evolve.

Mutlu-Pakdil earned her PhD at the University of Minnesota and her undergraduate degree is from Bilkent University in Turkey. She spends most of her time searching for hierarchical structure at the scale of dwarf galaxies as a novel test of the Cold Dark Matter paradigm. She uses data gathered in a large range of wavelengths from premier telescopes worldwide to learn more about how the universe came to be the way it is today.

Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil’s TED talk

More news and ideas from Burçin Mutlu-Pakdil

Live from TED2018

Reimagining the future: Notes from TED Fellows Session 1 at TED2018

April 10, 2018

Forget those miserly folk who hoard their best for the last — TED believes in starting strong. Kicking off TED2018 is Session 1 of the TED Fellows, who count among their ranks artists, activists, scientists, researchers, conservationists, thinkers and changemakers of all kinds. The Fellows program now total 453 individuals from 96 countries. In this […]

Continue reading