We are delighted to announce that Utku Kale, our assistant professor at the Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering within the Department of Aeronautics and Naval Architecture at BME, at the end of April has been selected by the European Commission for a five-year term as a Member of the European Commission Expert Group in the Mobility and Transport Department.
The European Commission will hold its first meeting with the appointed members of the expert group on June 3rd and 4th in Brussels, for an in-person session. During this meeting, our assistant professor will receive detailed information about his roles and responsibilities within the European Commission.
Dr. Utku Kale from Turkey began his doctoral studies at the Department of Aeronautics and Naval Architecture, Faculty of Transportation Engineering and Vehicle Engineering at BME in 2018. Since 2020, he has been working as a “Senior Assistant Professor” at RHT-BME.
Before joining BME, Utku travelled around the world. He got his BSc degree in Engineering back in Ankara. In 2011, he participated in the “Work and Travel” Programme in San Diego, USA, for over three months as his first experience abroad. The second was Spain, where he had the opportunity to study at the University of Castilla La Mancha through the ERASMUS Internship Programme.
Besides his activities at BME he has various academic roles in different countries. He has served as a Scientific Researcher at the Faculty of Technology (Aviation Engineering Department) at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences in a project in collaboration with NLR (Royal Netherlands Aerospace Center), KLM (Royal Dutch Airlines), and JetSupport since 2022. He also takes part in academic activities at Vilnius Technical University, Lithuania.
Utku Kale is the President of SARES-HUNGARY (Int. Sustainable Aviation and Energy Research Society-Hungary), Associate Editor of the International Journal of Sustainable Aviation (IJSA), and Language Editor of the International Journal of Aviation Science and Technology (IJAST) since 2020. In addition, he organizes several International Conferences (IEEE, SPRINGER, AIAA) annually as a Technical Chair and Organizing Committee Member of International Conferences. He has organized more than 31 Conferences, Symposiums, Workshops and Aviation Forums so far, including AIAA Aviation Forum (AIAA), ISSA (Springer), ISEAS (Springer), ISUDEF (Springer), ISATECH (Springer), ISEMAS (Springer), GPECOM (IEEE), CogMob (IEEE) and many others.
His main research interests are Safety Risk Assessment in Transportation, Human Factors in Transport, Transportation Safety, Decision-Making in Transport, Environmental Sustainability in Aviation and Transportation, Energy and Exergy. Our assistant professor has also participated in several European and non-EU-level collaborations and projects in various roles such as PI (Principal Investigator), Project Leader, Chief Researcher, and External Scientific Researcher. Some of these projects include SESAR, BRIGHSKY, ERASMUS+, EFOP, SPOC, Hungarian (NRDIO) – Turkish (TUBITAK) Bilateral Cooperation.
The biggest event he has ever been involved in „AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) Forum 2024” will be held on 29 July and 2 August in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. He will be one of the Chairs for the AIAA Aviation Forum and will organize two technical panel sessions on “Sustainable Aviation” in this aviation forum. The AIAA Aviation Forum will bring together nearly 5,000 attendees from around the world, representing hundreds of government, academic, and private institutions. Over 1,000 technical presentations will be on the latest innovations in more than 20 aviation and aerospace research topics.
He has a very exciting and busy schedule for the summer, much like the previous ones. His summer includes measurements at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, meetings in Brussels, serving as a member of defense committees for PhD students in Lithuania and Spain, participating in the organization of the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics) Aviation Forum and Technical Panel Sessions in Las Vegas as one of the Chairs, overseeing ongoing projects, and organizing five international conferences. The topics are mainly aviation, transportation, and energy in Hungary, the USA, Spain, Azerbaijan, Vietnam, and Turkey. And of course, he also has holiday plans for this summer with his Hungarian wife and two children.
Regarding the cultural differences between Turkish and Hungarian people, Utku Kale shared the following thought with us: “If you want to get to know people, work with them!”