Dr Karaca graduated from Department of Civil Engineering in 1995 and worked as field engineer during two year. After deciding to have an academic career on civil and environmental studies, He started his master degree in Department of Environmental Engineering, Fatih University in 1997. Dr Karaca got his PhD on 2005 in Department of Environmental Engineering, Yıldız Technical University, Turkey. His PhD study was related to a atmospheric pollution and source apportionment of the airborne particles in a semi-urban area impacted by a megacity, Istanbul. During that period He made a series of chemical analyses in Cekmece Nuclear Research Center (ÇNAEM) in Turkey, and gained an extensive expertise in instrumental analyses such as Atomic Absorption Spectrometers equipped with Graphite Furnace (AAS-GF), Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis (INAA), Ion Chromatography (IC), High-performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) and Gas Chromatography (GC). In addition to instrumental analysis, He also focused on model developments and computational techniques (mostly on air pollution).
After his PhD, Dr Karaca continued to work as Assistant Prof. During this early career researcher times Dr Karaca involved in the development of several environmental and air quality models (NN-Airpol, NN-LEAP, city blood, Air Pollution Risk Index model, SOM based Air Transport model, etc.) to predict and explain the natural behavior of some phenomena (air pollution, atmospheric distribution, etc.) and to solve real life engineering problems (future city infrastructure requirements, leachate generation from solid waste landfill sites, etc.). He also did significant research activities on the identification of atmospheric pollutants, particularly on PM during this period, and gained expertise on receptor site modelling and chemical mass balance models. The main graduate and under graduate level courses he taught are “Air pollution”, “Transportation and Environment”, “Industrial air pollution control” and “Environmental data analysis” in the Department of Environmental Engineering.
He worked as a senior research fellow in the IVHM Centre of Canfield University, UK for 3 years. During his times in the UK, He involved in several international projects and mostly he focused on the impacts of air pollution on cultural heritage, energy problems of future, sustainable development and management, Product Service Systems for traditional industries, innovation for future cities, infrastructure assessment and management, and transportation and environment.
Dr Karaca has been working as Associate Professor with Civil Engineering Department, in Turkey, US, and Kazakhstan since 2012. His current research area lies in a multidisciplinary area in the field of civil and environmental engineering including (air pollution research, environmental modelling, energy, transportation and environment, sustainable development, and infrastructure assessment and management, GIS, Occupational Health and Safety, and risk assessment).
Currently, He is an Associate Professor in Nazarbayev University. He is an internationally distinguish scientist having 60+ peer reviewed articles, h-index of 14, i10-index of 18 with 950+ citations.
