Ayyuce Begum Bektas

Postdoctoral Fellow
Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Begum is a postdoctoral researcher in machine learning working at the intersection of optimization, statistics, and computational biology. Her early research centered on learning with kernels, including regularization and interpretable models. At the Sloan Kettering Institute she developed deep conditional density estimation methods for uncertainty-aware prediction and survival analysis in complex biological systems. Her current work integrates scalable kernel methods with deep learning to build reliable models for biology and healthcare. She is also an effective collaborator with clinicians and biologists to translate methods into practice. She holds degrees from Sabancı University (B.Sc.), Boğaziçi University (M.Sc.), and Koç University (Ph.D.).

Curriculum Vitae
Personal Information
Name: Ayyuce Begum Bektas
Nationality: Turkish
Address: Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, CLS Building, 3 Blackfan Circle, Boston, MA 02115
Email address: begum [at] ds.dfci.harvard.edu
Education
2009 – 2013 Bachelor of Science, Industrial Engineering, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey
2014 – 2017 Master of Science, Industrial Engineering, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey
2017 – 2022 Doctor of Philosophy, Industrial Engineering, Operations Management, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
Scientific Career
2012 – 2013 Undergraduate Teaching Assistant, Sabancı University, Istanbul, Turkey
2017 – 2020 Research Project Scholar, Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK-EEEAG 117E181), Istanbul, Turkey
2017 – 2022 Graduate Research, Teaching Assistant, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Koç University, Istanbul, Turkey
2022 – 2025 Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Cancer Data Science, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
2025 – present Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Data Science, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute