Ogetay Kayali

These are the three things that define me the most: Science, nature, and arts. Yet, ironically these are the three things that doesn’t define me much. I’m an curious learner with a passion for sharing knowledge. Because of this, science and science communication has been always at the center of my life. But how can someone be deeply curious without being captivated by the very nature itself? Some of us walks on the roads, I see stones and formations. Art is hidden in front of our eyes for those who want to see it.

I’m currently doing a PhD in Astrophysics and Physics at Michigan Tech. At the same time, I have been working for NASA’s top visited public outreach platform Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) for four years now. In 2018, I founded Rasyonalist.org (Rationalist), a leading popular science platform in Turkey, where I worked as an editor and writer for 7 years. Later, to focus different areas, Rationalist has been merged with the top popular science platform Evrim Ağacı (Tree of Evolution) where I keep occasionally contribute. Beyond writing, I have collaborated with major science outreach and education organizations, participated in workshops as an educator and organized large-scale events both as a professional and a volunteer for teaching science to kids. Most recently, I worked as a script/scenario writer for Barış Özcan YouTube, made the research and wrote nearly 70 videos that amassed over 50 million views. 

Besides expressing myself with words, where they are not capable, I use visuals. I have been always interested in visual arts, some for charcoal drawing but mostly photography. Besides doing amateur nature, wildlife photography for almost 15 years, lately, I have sent my professional telescope setup to a remote observatory, Starfront Observatories in Texas, US where I have been regularly imaging almost every other night. So far, on astrophotographers’ common meeting place Astrobin, my images got 1 Image of the Day (IOTD), 6 Top Picks (TP), and 5 Top Pick Nominations (TPN). My short story of achieving big results with small telescope has been on the cover of ScopeTrader magazine 2024 November issue.