Dr. Derek Baker, Associate Professor in Mechanical Engineering at Middle East Technical University (METU), runs this program. Dr. Baker has twice been named Educator of the Year at METU, an honor given to approximately 1% of the faculty at METU each year. Dr. Baker received his BS in Mechanical Engineering from Virginia Tech in 1992, and his MS and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from The University of Texas-Austin in 1996 and 2000, respectively. He served as an Assistant Professor in the Energy Resources group in the Department of Environmental Resources Engineering at Humboldt State University in Arcata, California, from 2000-2002. He joined Middle East Technical University in 2003. He co-authored Thermodynamics: An Integrated Learning System, which was published by John Wiley & Sons in 2006 and translated into Korean in 2008. He has served as the Associate Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Thermodynamics since 2008. He is a faculty member of METU's Center for Solar Energy Research and Applications (GÜNAM) and METU's Wind Energy Research Center (RÜZGEM). He is currently advising or has recently advised graduate students in the areas of fuel cells, hydrogen production, concentrating solar thermal power, thermal powered adsorption cooling systems, and building energy simulation.