Food Valley Ambassador from Turkey

Name:                          Sami Şahin (male)

Nationality:                  Turkish

Year of birth:               1986

Education and work experience:
• MSc in Food Technology/Product and Process Design, Wageningen UR
• BSc Food Engineering, University of Gaziantep, Turkey
• Internships at Ülker, Turkish Standard Institutes and Canet

Specific knowledge:
Some insight in food processing, especially in membrane separation processes.

Contacts in home country:
• Contacts with academic staff and students at food and food-related field universities all around Europe.
• Contacts at European food organizations such as EFFoST and ISEKI, where I have served as a student representative.
• Some contacts at governmental research and standardization institutes in Turkey.

Knowledge of languages:
Turkish (mother tongue) and English

Some pro's of Turkey:
Turkey offers good R&D opportunities.

Personal note:
I was born in Of, a small district of Trabzon in Turkey, where I went to primary and secondary school. Later, I moved to the city on my own for a better high school education. In fact it was the beginning of my life away from home. I always aimed to do better. Having graduated from high school, I went to another city, Gaziantep, to study Food Engineering. I was mainly attracted to the University of Gaziantep because of its language of instruction is English. For me, studying at such a university was a stepping stone in order to go abroad for my higher education. During my BSc, I  worked to make my dream of studying abroad a reality, and I succeeded. I wished to study abroad in order to experience working in an international environment and to gain expertise in my field of study. I chose Wageningen because it is a place where many food ideas are growing. I decided to specialize in product and process design because there is a need for more experts in this area in my home country.

I strongly believe that having taken part in the Food Valley Ambassador program will ensure that I remain connected to the international food industry even after I go back to home. And my internship in the FVA program will help me to put everything I learned into practice and to see all different aspects of the food industry, not just research. This is the best opportunity I can imagine in the real world of food.