Together with a wonderful friend, Professor Jonathan Moreno, I am a member of the Advisory Board of a bold incipient vision of my remarkable alumnus from the very first EPIIC year, Turhan Canli.
Turhan is a world-renowned neurologist, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Stony Brook where he is the Founder/Director of the SCAN (Social, Cognitive, Affective Neuroscience) Center, the editor of the Oxford Handbook on Molecular Psychology.
He is also the founder and director of Mind Brain Center on War and Humanity. He was elected "Fellow" of the Association for Psychological Science (APS) in 2010, and is a Google Scholar with approximately 100 peer-reviewed papers and/or book chapters. Turhan is the Co-Founder, and Member of the Governing Board and Executive Committee of the Neuroethics Society
The Mind Brain Center will focus Turhan's research and teaching efforts on the topic of trauma and resilience in the context of war
We will be helping Turhan to develop the educational element of the Center, by identifying internship opportunities for his students with refugee relief and rehabilitation organizations such as RefugePoint and Questscope, and connecting the Center to the broader community of my alumni and past collaborators who have engaged with these issues.
Turhan’s newest proposed project is on "War-Trauma and Disease," an investigation of trauma within the Syrian refugee population as a potential cause for higher rates of infectious diseases. He hopes to be able to identify genetic biomarkers activated by trauma, that affect the immune system and increase susceptibility to diseases such as polio and toxoplasmosis.
His Syria paper is currently under final review in the journal "World Psychiatry". According to the Journal Citation Reports, the journal has a 2019 impact factor of 40.595. It is ranked no. 1 out of 155 journals in the category Psychiatry and no. 1 out of 3,414 journals in the Social Sciences Citation Index category).
His work concentrates on some of the most critical areas of human rights. He is currently working with a colleague on the Turkish-Syrian border to run a brain imaging study (using a Scanner located in Idlib) of nerve gas survivors. They hope to have corroborating neuro-evidence for a future war crimes trial in The Hague.
As a member of the Development Board of CES, I introduced Turhan to their Director, Nicole Shea, in early 2017. Together, they co-edited the issue of EuropeNow, "Forced Migration, Cultural Identity, and Trauma," in which I interviewed another Institute alumnus, Mike Niconchuk, about his socio-neurology work in the Za'atari refugee camp.
I awarded Turhan EPIIC’s alumni recognition award in 2006. I wrote “In recognition of your distinguished scholarly accomplishments, path-breaking ways to understand the brain, and your dedication to ethics in science and public policy.”
One of my most delightful tasks is to recommend my alumni as they progress in their professional lives. My most recent recommendation for Turhan is as a Visiting Research Fellow at the Refugee Studies Centre in the Department of International Development of the University of Oxford.
His newest research project is “From WhatsApp to WhatsNext: Developing novel bio-psycho-legal tools for a new era of conflict and violence. He is seeking to develop innovative tools for international organizations to bring relief and justice to war-traumatized civilian populations in conflict zones. This proof-of-concept initiative will take place in Turkish-controlled regions of Syria, collaborating with two non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that have local staff operating in that region. Is seeks to create a WhatsApp-based tool to create real-time geographical maps of mental health and neurological conditions, developing protocols to collect biological forensic evidence from survivors of chemical weapons attacks for submission to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague.