Dr Burcu Ozsoy received BA and MA degrees at the Department of Geodesy and Photogrammetry Engineering at Yıldız Technical University. She started to teach at the Maritime Faculty in Istanbul Technical University in 2001 and started her doctoral study in 2005 at the University of Texas in San Antonio. Within the framework of her doctoral study, she participated her first Antarctic Science Expedition in 2006 with American and Swedish scientists, during which she collected terrestrial/in-situ data on sea ice observations. She then worked on the verification of satellite images with in-situ data and also on sea ice interaction with climate change in Antarctica. Her Horizon 2020 project, joint venture with European countries, covering Arctic and Antarctic regions, was accepted in 2015, and Dr. Ozsoy served as the coordinator of the project in Turkey.

She is the founding director of Polar Research Center (PolReC) established at Istanbul Technical University in January 2015. PolReC, Turkey’s first qualified polar research center, with its administrative staff, national and international scientific collaborations, undertook the task of a national roof for polar studies. The center coordinated the Antarctic Scientific Expeditions under the auspices of the Presidency, as well as conducted the polar scientific program strategy. Dr. Ozsoy was the expedition leader of the National Turkish Antarctic Expedition – I (TAE-I), – II (TAE- II), – III (TAE- III) carried out in 2017, 2018 and 2019. Recently, she started her position as a director at TUBITAK Polar Research Institute.