Leyla Özkan is an Associate Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). Her research seeks to improve the operation and increase the understanding of industrial chemical systems. She uses modeling, system theory and mathematics to develop new tools and methods and apply them to chemical applications. She collaborates closely with industrial partners, developing solutions for processes with real industrial needs, and her work has demonstrated the commercial value of these methods. The group specifically advances methods for autonomous operation support technology: models for predictive control, real-time optimization, process monitoring both at unit and enterprise level, and integration of process design with instrumentation and operational aspects.  

In addition, Özkan teaches master’s degree level courses such as Model Based Control, Advanced Process Control and the System Integration Project in the Systems and Control master’s degree program. She is the chair of the PSE-NL Network and is an associate editor for the Journal of Process Control. 

Leyla Özkan holds a BSc and MSc in Chemical Engineering from Bogazici University (Turkey). She undertook her PhD in Chemical Engineering at Lehigh University (USA), studying model-based control of chemical processes.  

Upon graduating, Özkan became a postdoc at the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK) as part of EPSRC project Chemicals Behaving Badly II. In this project, Özkan developed tools and methods for the control of pharmaceutical crystallization processes for companies including GSK, Pfizer, Syngenta and Astrazeneca.  

In 2005, Özkan joined IPCOS Technology Boxtel as an R&D consultant, developing model reduction technology for glass melting tanks. In 2009, she returned to academia as Assistant Professor in the Control Systems group of the Electrical Engineering department at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e).