Başak Balaban

Basak Balaban obtained her Bachelor’s degree in 1993 from the University of Ankara,Turkiye, working in the faculty of Biological Sciences. Following her clinical embryology training and education at the Ankara Sevgi Hospital-Turkiye in between the years 1994-1996, she was certificated for the laboratory based procedural applications of IVF (In-vitro fertilization) at The Schoysman Infertility Manegement Foundation (SIMAF), Brussels, Belgium, and certified in 1996 by the Ministry of Health Turkiye gaining the right to become an IVF laboratory director of an ART (Assisted Reproduction Technologies) clinic in her country. She founded and chaired the IVF laboratory in the ART Unit of German Hospital, Istanbul, Turkiye in 1996. She became the IVF Laboratory Director in the American Hospital of Istanbul, Turkiye; the Assisted Reproduction Unit at the end of 1996, and still currently works there. American Hospital of Istanbul, Turkiye Assisted Reproduction Unit formally became one of the dedicated certification centers by the Ministry of Health Turkiye for infertility specialists and clinical embryologists, since 2005. She’s the main responsible scientist for the training program of clinical embryologists certifying many embryologists within the country. She’s also the scientific advisor of the affiliated university hospital IVF department; Koc University Hospital, Assisted Reproduction Unit. Her major interest areas are embryo selection and in-vitro culture techniques, cryopreservation, and blastocyst culture. She has published and lectured extensively in these fields. She’s a member of ESHRE since 1996, was a board member of CNR (Committee for National Representatives) from 2008- 2015, and an executive committee member from 2015-2019. She’s a member of the Alpha society ; an International Society of Scientists in Reproductive Medicine since 2000, and had been the chair of the society from 2008 till 2012 for two terms. She’s one of the founders and was the chair of the Turkish Society of Clinical Embryologists (KED) from 2011 till 2015. She was a board member of the Turkish Society of Reproductive Medicine since 2017-2022 ans still acts as the co-ordinator of the special interest groups of the society.