He received a Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Tokyo in 2003. He says in his books, blog or laboratory homepage that he was born in 1973 in Germany but holds Turkish citizenship, won gold medal in U-20 European junior world ski championship in 1987, graduated from Illinois Institute of Technology in 1995, Istanbul Yildiz University in 1996, and the Bauhaus-University in 1999 (Master degree), completed the NASA astronaut training program in 2001, and in 2004 became the first Turkish person to be selected as a candidate astronaut, and has received the U.S. Technology Award, the physics award of Cambridge University and the American Medal of Honor for his space-elevator project or 11-dimensional universe theory, and is able to speak 11 different language including three ancient language.