Zühal Karakurt

Prof. Dr. Zühal Karakurt, ATSF, FNIV
October 2025
Graduated from Marmara University Faculty of Medicine in 1993 and worked as a general practitioner in the Emergency Department of Artvin State Hospital for 2 years. She completed her training in Chest Diseases at Süreyyapaşa Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery Education and Research Hospital between 1996 and 2000. Between February and November 2000, she worked as an observer doctor at Stefano Nava's clinic in Italy for 10 months. He was involved in the establishment of the Intensive Care Unit at Süreyyapaş on March 29, 2001. She has been working in Intensive Care since then. With a scholarship from the Turkish Thoracic Society Intensive Care Working Group, she received training in Respiratory Mechanics and Diaphragm Functions at Dr. Stefano Nava's clinic in Italy from March to September 2009. She became an Associate Professor of Pulmonary Diseases in March 2012. In 2013, she became an Intensive Care Specialist in the newly established subspecialty. Since 2014, she has been supporting the provision of subspecialty training for 11 years as Unit B in the Haydarpaşa Intensive Care Subspecialty Protocol. She served as Chief Physician at Süreyyapaşa Training and Research Hospital from 2014 to 2022. In July 2020, he received the title of Professor of Pulmonology from the Department of Pulmonology at Hamidiye Medical Faculty, Health Sciences University. He graduated from ATS MECOR in 2008-2011 and worked as a MECOR faculty and Turkey MECOR Co-Coordinator from 2016 to 2024. In 2023, she was awarded the title of ATS Fellow and the Successful Women Leaders Award for his contributions as the Turkey MECOR Coordinator at the American Thoracic Society. Her areas of interest include sepsis, mechanical ventilation, weaning, research question development, and article writing training. She has a total of 116 publications (58 international SCI-E articles, 52 non-SCI-E international articles, and 6 national articles). Her WOS H-index is 16, her Google Scholar H-index is 23, and she has 1986 citations. Her research includes a total of 272 abstracts (114 international) and 29 book chapters. She has given over 200 presentations and chaired sessions at national and international conferences. She has served as Conference Chair at a total of 12 international and national conferences. She has received numerous awards for oral and poster presentations. She currently works as director physician at the Respiratory Level 3 Intensive Care Unit of SBÜ Süreyyapaşa Chest Diseases and Thoracic Surgery Education and Research Hospital. She speaks English (fluent), Italian (basic), and Romanian (basic). She graduated from the Anadolu University Open Education Culinary Arts Department in June 2025. She is married and is the mother of Can (1996) and Elif (2003). Her hobbies include volunteering as a mentor to young academics, providing research training, and conducting analyses. She also enjoys cooking new dishes, which she plans to compile into a book in the future, dancing, walking on the beach, learning to sail, and gardening.