Mehmet Yavuz Açikalin

(Trinity) Mehmet Yavuz Acikalin is from Ankara, Turkey. He graduated from TEV Inanc Turkes High School in Kocaeli, the only high school for talented and gifted students in Turkey with an IB diploma. Back in high school, Yavuz acted for the schools only theater group, and he sang for Istanbul Symphony Orchestra in productions including Carmina Burana and Carmen. He received several prestigious awards for his theater performances. He also took parts in his high schools Model United Nations Club, Creative Writing Club, and Finance and Investment Club. He also volunteered to teach music and theater classes to poor kids from a neighboring village. At Duke, he is the Vice President for Programming at Duke East Asia Nexus, an independent student publication on East Asia issues. He also works at Dr. Michael Platt’s lab at the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience as a research assistant, focusing on value-based decision making in rhesus monkeys. He is also a member of The Nexus SLG. Yavuz is double majoring in Neuroscience and Economics, along with a minor in Chinese, and after Duke, he is interested in pursuing something related to the marketing applications of his studies at Duke.