Iskender Yilgör received his BS (1972), MS (1974) and Ph. D. (1977) Degrees in Chemistry from Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey and was appointed as an Assistant Professor in Chemistry Department in 1979. Dr. Yilgör joined Prof. Jim McGrath’s Group at Virginia Tech in 1980 as a Visiting Scientist and served as the Group Coordinator (1983-1985). At VaTech he developed thermoplastic silicone-urea copolymers, sulfonated acrylate elastomers, silicone and polysulfone toughened epoxy resins and was involved in many other projects.

In 1985 he joined Mercor Inc., a subsidiary of Thoratec Corp., Berkeley, CA, as the Director of Research and became Vice President of R&D a year later. At Mercor and Thoratec he mainly worked on the development of blood compatible thermoplastic polyurethanes and silicone-urethane and silicone-urea elastomers, which were used as heart pumps, artificial blood vessels, catheters and waterproof, moisture vapor permeable
membranes.

In 1989 Dr. Yilgör moved to Goldschmidt Chemical Corp., Hopewell, VA, as the Vice President of R&D, where he established an R&D laboratory and pilot plant facilities for the production of specialty thermoplastic polyurethane and silicone elastomers.

In 1994 Dr. Yilgör joined Koç University (KU), as the founding member of the Chemistry Department, where he is currently a Professor. At KU he established the Polymer Research Laboratories and a strong undergraduate research program on polymer research. In 2009 he established Koc University Surface Science and Technology Center (KUYTAM) with a $10 million funding from Turkish government, where he also served as the Director. Prof. Yilgör is also the founding Dean of the KU Graduate School of Health Sciences (2011-2013). Dr. Yilgör was a member of Tübitak (The Scientific and Technological Research Institution of Turkey) Science Board (2009-2013), a member of the Board of Trustees of Toros University (2009-2015) and the standing committee member representing Turkey at the European Science Foundation (2010-2012). He is the Associate Editor of European Journal of Chemistry (2009-Present) and a Member of the Advisory Editorial Board of Silicon (2009-Present) and Polymer Engineering and Science (2020-Present).

Prof. Yilgör is the recipient of numerous awards for his contributions to Polymer Science, including the 2003 TUBITAK Science Award, the most prestigious award in Turkey. Other awards include, Koç University Werner von Siemens Award in Excellence in Science and Innovation (1999), Mersin Toros Rotary Club Science Award (2004) and Koç University Outstanding Research Faculty Award (2014).

Prof. Yilgör is a co-author on 2 books, 15 book chapters and over 125 refereed articles in polymer science. He is also a co-inventor over 20 US, European and International patents.