1. Concentrating solar thermal power (CSP) systems: Monitoring and modeling of a tri-generation system (electricity, cooling and heating) being installed at the METU Northern Cyprus campus. Modeling and simulating the performance of large scale CSP systems and evaluating their appropriateness for different regions of Turkey.
2. Building Energy Simulations (BES): Simulating the performance and environmental impact of building energy systems (Keywords: High-Performance Buildings; Green Buildings; Energy Efficient Buildings).
3. Fuel Cells: Theoretical modeling and experiments on proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cells.
4. Energy Storage: Large scale energy storage systems for intermittent renewable energy sources.
5. Thermal powered cooling cycles: Adsorption, absorption and desiccant with a particular interest in driving these systems using solar thermal energy or waste heat.
6. Exergy Based Indicators and Methods: Development of exergy based indicators and methods and their application to assess the thermodynamic, economic and environmental impact of energy systems.
7. Enabling Technologies Required for Intermittent Energy Sources: Analysis of the spatial and temporal coincidence of intermittent energy sources and electricity demand, and the characteristics required by a Smart Grid to allow a large penetration of these energy sources into the grid.

CERES Internal Website: (12 May 2011) Dr. Derek Baker is developing an internal website for our group to organize and share important research information. This website will be opened to CERES Members in June 2011 and used extensively to support our 2011 Summer Workshop Series on Research and Scientific Communication.

METU Thesis Guide: Download the official METU Thesis Guide with instructions on formatting and preparing your thesis.

CERES Graduate Student Guide: Download the CERES Graduate Student Guide (PDF) for information about graduation paths, requirements for your thesis proposal, sample thesis outline, and writing hints.

Sample Thesis Introduction: I included a cover page with comments to help guide future students writing their Thesis Introduction.

	Student: Mesru Altınöz Advisor: Dr. Derek Baker Co-Advisor: - Date: March 12, 2011 Proposed Thesis: Building Energy Simulations in High Performance Buildings (pdf).

Sample Thesis Proposal: I included a cover page with comments to help guide future students writing their Thesis Proposal.

Sample Theses: The following are two theses that I recently read that I thought were extremely well-written and organized. Both contain a very exhaustive literature review, clearly identify gaps in the current literature that their research intends to fill, give full credit to the work and ideas of others, and clearly differentiate their original work from the work of others.

How to Evaluate the Value of Your Thesis: In academia, the most widely accepted method to judge research is the ability to publish the research. A hierarchy of research journals exist, with the top journals publishing only the best research. Having publications in top level journals opens a lot of doors in the research and academic communities. Also, promotion at METU is largely based on publishing in quality journals. At METU and within Turkey, the following methods are used to judge the quality of the journals, and therefore can be used to assess the quality of your research.

• SCI-Core Index: An index of the top well-established journals.
• SCI-Expanded Index: Includes all SCI-Core journals plus many many more. Publishing in this index is important for YÖK and most Turkish Universities.
• METU's A-Type Journals: An index of what METU considers the top established and emerging journals, which includes all SCI-Core and the top half of SCI-Expanded indexes. To a large extent my promotion to Full Professor at METU will be based on my ability to have papers co-authored with my students published in these A-Type journals.
• METU's B-Type Journals: The bottom half of the SCI-Expanded Index.
• METU Scoring: To understand the relative value METU places on different types of publications (journal versus conference, international versus national) and how this relates to promotion at METU, you can can view METU's appointment and promotion requirements and METU's Assessment Scheme.