I am an Assistant Professor at the University of Chicago, and often very busy with work. People call me Meren, and if you call me Murat in your first message, I will know you didn't read my profile even this far.

Science takes up a very large fraction of my life. I spend quite a bit of time in France every year, and travel often for talks and conferences within the US. I am trained as a computer scientist, then I became a microbial ecologist, and now I study microbial populations everywhere to better understand how they interact with each other and their environments to get insights into outstanding medical and ecological questions.

I can get along with pretty much everyone except those who submit themselves to racist, sexist, and/or religious ideologies.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

I have an apartment in Hyde Park with two bedrooms one bathroom. Having benefited a lot from CS when I was younger, I feel making one of the bedrooms available to travelers is a good way to contribute to the community.

PS: I tend to not host people who haven't hosted at least one person through CS.

Interests

Music, photography, computer science, microbiology.

• design
• photography
• biology
• computer science
• ecology
• languages
• science
• software
• statistics

Music, Movies, and Books

Music (I can appreciate music in a wide range; I listen anything worth listening from black metal to ethnic, from jazz to electronic): Dimmu Borgir, Huun Huur Tu, Yat Kha, Gotan Project, Infected Mushroom, Cradle of Filth, Amorphis, Northern Exposure, Morcheeba, Marcus Miller, Portishead, Goldfrapp, Daft Punk, Jaco Pastorius, John Abercrombie, Burzum, Chet Atkins, Asik Veysel.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

I developed a software platform, which some scientists liked and used.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach, Microbial Ecology.
Learn, French.
Share, Music.

Countries I’ve Visited

Canada, France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland

Countries I’ve Lived In

Turkey, United States

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