Dr. Baris Salihoglu faculty member, Professor of Oceanography, at Middle East Technical University-Institute of Marine Sciences, is the director of the institute since 2016. He leads the DEKOSIM project for establishing a new centre of excellence (Centre for Marine Ecosystem and Climate Research) funded by the Turkish Ministry of Development. This CoE strives to be the national as well as regional (Southwest Europe) leader in marine ecosystem observation and forecasting. His research interests cover a variety of topics, which range from mathematical modeling of marine ecosystems to descriptive physical oceanography. His main research focus is on exploring marine ecosystem and biogeochemical dynamics via the combination of modeling and data analyses.

He works on development of biogeochemical cycle models in North Atlantic, Mediterranean and the Black Seas. Recently he is in an effort of establishing a blue growth center that will focus on promoting the sustainable growth of marine sectors at national scale. Dr. Salihoglu and his team have actively contributed to the development of the Black Sea Blue Growth Strategic and Research Agenda. He is the coordinator of H2020 Black Sea CONNECT CSA and H2020 BRIDGE-BS projects.