Chemist · Chemical metrology

Dr. İlker Ün

Chief Senior Researcher, TÜBİTAK National Metrology Institute (UME)

Reliable measurement is the quiet foundation of science and public health. My work addresses what this means in chemistry: determining how pure a substance is, or how much of it a sample contains, with a known uncertainty and traceability to the SI. Since 2012 I have been developing quantitative NMR (qNMR) methods as a Chief Senior Researcher at the TÜBİTAK National Metrology Institute (UME), and drawing on this expertise to support numerous public institutions and private companies with NMR analyses.

I have taken part in certified reference material projects ranging from food safety to clinical analysis, and in international CCQM comparisons that test the measurement capabilities of national metrology institutes. Within the European metrology programme EMPIR, I contributed to projects that built the metrological foundations of quantitative MR imaging. In 2015 and 2017 I was a visiting researcher at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in Paris, working on qNMR methods and measurement uncertainty for mycotoxin reference materials.

My path in NMR spectroscopy began at Gebze Technical University, where I completed my MSc and PhD in inorganic chemistry, focusing on phosphazene chemistry. This background in synthetic chemistry continues to guide a broad range of NMR applications today, from structure elucidation and purity assessment to metabolite profiling in biological fluids.