On March 8, International Women's Day, TUBITAK took a new step in the fight against climate change and took the traditional event of donating saplings every March 8 one step further and organized a sapling planting event for its female employees at the Gebze Campus.
TUBITAK President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal and TUBITAK employees experienced the excitement of planting saplings in Gebze campus. Approximately 300 olive saplings were planted on the land next to the TÜBİTAK Science High School Pond.
TÜBİTAK President Prof. Dr. Hasan Mandal thanked the female employees for their efforts and underlined that female employees have contributed greatly to every success of TÜBİTAK.
Mandal said, "We will also be proud to create a memorial forest on behalf of our female employees. I wish that our sapling planting event, which is an important step within the scope of our goals of both combating climate change and leaving a greener world to future generations, will be continuous."
Recalling the fire that occurred in a maquis area at TÜBİTAK Gebze Campus, Mandal said, "We had an unfortunate fire and lost a maquis area for that period. Now we are planting olive trees here on our campus and we wanted to do this on a meaningful day."
Prof. Dr. Mandal said, "Every year, as TÜBİTAK, we used to donate a sapling for each of our women to the General Directorate of Forestry on March 8, Women's Day. But because of the experience we had this year, we wanted to have our own nursery to make it more meaningful. We want to make this traditional. I wish March 8 women's day to be auspicious again."
"The efforts and contributions of our female employees at TÜBİTAK are very valuable"
Emphasizing that "Women have a very different meaning for an institution like TÜBİTAK," Mandal said, "TÜBİTAK is the flagship of our country in science and technology, and if we are talking about fires, floods and disasters today, we believe that the solution for all of these will be science and technology. The efforts and contributions of our female employees at TÜBİTAK, which is the most important flagship at that point of science and technology, are very valuable. Whether they are researchers, support staff, administrative staff or a servant. I would like to sincerely thank all of them for being employees of this institution, under the roof of approximately 6,300 people, who work day and night, give their minds to this work and say that I am also here to develop the knowledge and technology that our country and humanity need."
The President of TÜBİTAK said, "When we look at the coming years, when we look at the topics focused on climate change, food supply security, water supply security, some problems and difficulties that may be experienced in society, the key word, the key concept to overcome all of these is science and technology, and TÜBİTAK will continue to contribute, produce and develop. In this process, the role of our women is very valuable."
"We aim to increase the number of female employees and managers at TÜBİTAK"
"Our female employees constitute 32 percent of our approximately 6300 personnel working in our Presidency and Institutes, and more than 50 percent of our personnel in our Presidency units. Our aim is to increase this number even more, but we are trying to increase the number of not only employees, but also the number of female researchers and female employees in managerial positions, especially at decision-making points." Mandal said, "Again, as the most important institution of our country that supports science, technology and innovation in terms of our support programs, we now have at least one female researcher and scientist in each of our Group Executive Boards and Advisory Boards. We are confident that this will increase even more in the coming years. I would like to sincerely thank all our women for their efforts and contributions, and I wish that the initiative we have launched today will be beneficial to our institution, our country and humanity."
