Biography
Zeynep Ambarkutuk is a postdoctoral fellow in the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Education, where she examines how industry-engaged graduate funding structures shape Ph.D. student success and faculty research environments across STEM disciplines. She brings expertise in quantitative research methodology, including structural equation modeling, multilevel modeling, and longitudinal data analysis, and her broader research focuses on understanding students' motivation as a complex and evolving driver of their engagement and learning. This line of research appeals to her because it emphasizes how individuals exercise agency as they engage, adapt, and learn in diverse educational contexts. She earned her Ph.D. and master's in Educational Psychology from Virginia Tech, where she also taught Educational Psychology and Educational Assessment courses.