Academic Staff

Dr. Şermin Tükel received her BSc (2002) degree in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation and her MSc (2007) degree in Occupational Therapy from the Hacettepe University. She clinically worked as a therapist in the Education and Protection of the Mentally Disabled Children and in the Tohum Autism Foundation. She received her PhD (2013) degree in Medicine from the Karolinska Institutet, where she was fully funded by several Swedish Foundations. She had short-term fellowships in Uppsala University Child & Baby Lab and in the Stanford University Center for Interdisciplinary Brain Sciences Research. Moving back to Turkey, she worked in the Anadolu Autism Foundation and İzmir Katip Çelebi University. Since 2017 she has been working as a faculty member in the İzmir University of Economics. She is lecturing in health sciences, psychology, and medicine programs. Her research interest covers motion-cognition interaction in humans by usage of digital biosensors and behavioural assessments.

Barış Gürpınar graduated from Dokuz Eylul University School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation in 2000. She completed her Masters in Health management degree in 2007 at London City University with the thesis topic of “Occupational satisfaction among physiotherapists” and in 2010 she had Masters in Science (English) at Dokuz Eylül University her thesis topic was Evaluation of work-related musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomic awareness among physiotherapists. She received her PhD degree at the same university in 2016 her project was “The effect of aquatic and land stretching exercises on disease activity, quality of health, pulmonary function in ankylosing spondylitis” She had her clinical experience in Balçova Thermal Centre, Newham Primary Care Trust (NHS), Private Egem Phsical Therapy centre later she she worked as a research assistant in DEU School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation between 2009-2022. Sınce 2022 has been working as an Asst. Prof. İn Izmir University of Economic Faculty of Health Science Department of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation. She has participated various national and international scientific events on aquatic therapy additionally in 2013 she was the chair of organising committee of the first aquatherapy congress, European Congress of Evidence Based Aquatic Therapy (ECEBAT), in Izmir. Baris is the founding chairperson of the Aquatherapy subgroup of the Turkish Physiotherapists Association and is the only active member of the International Halliwick Association in Turkiye.