Ertugrul Basar

Professor, wireless systems

Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences | Electrical Engineering | Communications Engineering and Radio Systems

Tampere University

ertugrul.basar [at] tuni.fi (ertugrul[dot]basar[at]tuni[dot]fi)

+358503260845

Hervanta Campus

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5566-2392

About me

Prof. Ertugrul Basar was born in Istanbul, Türkiye, in 1985. He received the B.S. degree (with High Honors) from Istanbul University, Türkiye, in 2007 and the M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees from Istanbul Technical University, Türkiye, in 2009 and 2013, respectively.

He is a Professor of Wireless Systems in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Tampere University, Finland, and Head of Wireless Systems Group under the Tampere Wireless Research Centre. He was the founding director of the Communications Research and Innovation Laboratory (CoreLab) at Koç University in Istanbul, Türkiye. Before joining Tampere University, he held faculty positions at Koç University (2018–2025) and Istanbul Technical University (2009–2018). He also held visiting positions at Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA, as a Visiting Research Collaborator (2011–2022), and at Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, as a Mercator Fellow in 2022.

Prof. Basar’s primary research interests include 6G and beyond wireless systems, multi-antenna systems, index modulation, reconfigurable intelligent surfaces, waveform design, zero-power and noise-driven communications, software-defined radio, physical layer security, quantum key distribution systems, and signal processing/deep learning for communications. He is the inventor of 17 pending/granted patents on future wireless technologies.

He has received numerous awards and recognitions for his research, including the “National Leader Researchers” support from The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK) in 2022, “IEEE ComSoc Best Young Researcher Award for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa Region” in 2020, “Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA) Outstanding Young Scientist Award” in 2017, and the first-ever “IEEE Türkiye Research Encouragement Award” in 2017. He also received 12 Best Paper Awards, including those from the IEEE International Conference on Communications 2016 and the 2023 IEEE 97th Vehicular Technology Conference. Moreover, he was a TPC track chair or a TPC member for several IEEE conferences, such as GLOBECOM, ICC, PIMRC, and VTC.

Prof. Basar has published around 200 international journal articles, which have received more than 18,500 citations. His research in communications and wireless technologies is widely recognized worldwide. In the latest World’s Top 2% Scientists list compiled by Stanford Univ. and Elsevier, he was ranked 15th in the annual assessment and 128th in the career-long evaluation in the subfield of Networking & Telecommunications, placing him among the field leaders in the top 0.1%. He is also ranked 4th in Finland in terms of yearly academic impact from all disciplines. Over the years, he has supervised 10 Ph.D. and 20 Master’s students.

Dr. Basar has previously held editorial positions for various journals, including IEEE Communications Letters (2016-2022), IEEE Transactions on Communications (2018-2022), Physical Communication (2017-2020), IEEE Access (2016-2018), and Frontiers in Communications and Networks (2020-2025). Currently, he is an Editorial Board Member at npj Wireless Technology. He is a Member of the Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA) and a Fellow of the Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) and Artificial Intelligence Industry Academy (AIIA). Dr. Basar was selected as an IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc) Distinguished Lecturer for the Class of 2024-2025.

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to physical-layer design for next-generation wireless networks, Prof. Basar was elevated to IEEE Fellow in 2023, becoming one of the youngest IEEE Fellows of Europe at the age of 37.

Top achievements

Key Research Figures

# of journal papers: 202 / books: 1 / chapters: 5 / proceedings: 101.

# of projects: 14 / total funding received: ~ €2 million

# of citations: ~19,000 / h-index: 56 / FWCI: 3.44

# of patents granted: 5 / patents pending: 12

# of Ph.D./M.Sc. students supervised: 10/21

# journals and conferences served as Editor: 14 / Reviewer: 52 / TPC-Member: 44

# of invited keynotes, seminars, and presentations: ~70

# of scientific awards and recognitions: ~35

Top 2% Scientists rankings (yearly/overall): 1,517/17,655 (All fields) & 15/128 (Netw. & Telecommun.)

Awards and Recognitions

2025: Best Paper Award, Intelligent and Converged Networks

2025: Best Paper Award, 33rd Signal Processing and Telecommunication Applications Conference (SİU 2025)

2024: IEEE ComSoc Turkey Best Paper Award, 32nd Signal Processing and Telecommunication Applications Conference (SİU 2024)

2024: Distinguished Lecturer, IEEE Communications Society (ComSoc)

2024: Artificial Intelligence Industry Academy (AIIA) Fellow

2023: Associate Member, Turkish Academy of Sciences (TUBA)

2023: Best Paper Award, 26th International Symposium On Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications (WPMC 2023)

2023: Asia-Pacific Artificial Intelligence Association (AAIA) Fellow

2023: Best Paper Award, 2023 46th International Conference on Telecommunications and Signal Processing (TSP 2023)

2023: Best Paper Award, 2023 IEEE 97th Vehicular Technology Conference: VTC2023-Spring.

2023: Outstanding Teaching Award, Koç University

2023: IEEE Fellow, for contributions to physical-layer design for next-generation wireless networks.

2022: National Leader Researcher, The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey.

2020: IEEE ComSoc Best Young Researcher for the Europe, Middle East, and Africa Region.

2020: Exemplary Editor, IEEE Communications Letters

2020: Best Paper Award, 12th IEEE Latin-American Conference on Communications (IEEE LATINCOM 2020).

2019: Science Heroes Association, Scientist of the Year Award.

2019: Best Paper Award, 2019 19th IEEE International Conference on Communication Technology (ICCT 2019)

2018: ODTÜ Parlar Foundation, Research Encouragement Award

2018: Science Academy (Turkey), Young Scientist (BAGEP) Award

2018: Exemplary Reviewer, IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communications (2017).

2018: Best Paper Award, 2018 41st International Conference on Telecommunications and Signal Processing (TSP 2018)

2017: Turkish Academy of Sciences (TÜBA), Outstanding Young Scientist (GEBIP) Award

2017: Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Turkey, Research Encouragement Award

2017: Best Graduation Project Award (Advisor), Electrical Engineers Branch of Turkey

2017: IEEE ComSoc Turkey Best Student Paper Award, 25th Signal Processing and Telecommunication Applications Conference (SİU 2017)

2016: Best Paper Award, IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC 2016)

2014: Best Ph.D. Thesis of the Year Award, Istanbul Technical University

2012: Best Paper of the Year Award, Electrical Engineers Branch of Turkey

2009: Best Student Paper Award, 17th Signal Processing and Telecommunication Applications Conference (SİU 2009)

2007: B.Sc. Degree with High Honors, Istanbul University

Research unit

Electrical Engineering

Research fields

6G and Beyond Wireless Systems, MIMO Systems, Index Modulation, Reconfigurable Intelligent Surfaces, Waveform Design, Zero-Power and Noise-Driven Communications, Software-Defined Radio, Physical Layer Security, Signal Processing/Deep Learning for Communications, and Quantum Communications.