Department of Civil Engineering
Education:
| Ph.D. | Civil Engineering | The University of Sheffield | 2024 |
| M.Sc. | Civil Engineering | University of California, Irvine | 2015 |
| B.S. | Civil Engineering | Istanbul Technical University | 2012 |
Professional Experience:
| Responsibility | Location | Date |
| Postdoctoral Associate | Duke University, NC-USA | 2024 – 2026 |
| Graduate Teaching Assistant | The University of Sheffield, UK | 2021 – 2024 |
| Civil Engineer & Section Manager | General Directorate of State Hydraulic Works (DSİ), Türkiye | 2015 – 2020 |
Service on the Faculty:
| Assistant Professor | 2026-Present |
Scientific Publications:
A) Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
1. Yildiz, V., Brown, S., & Rougé, C. Adapting Small Hydropower Plants: A Robust Turbine Replacement Framework. (Under Review: Renewable Energy).
2. Yildiz, V., Voison, N., & Zaniolo, M. (2026). Adaptive Turbine Replacement Improves Hydropower Flexibility in a Changing Climate. Water Resources Research, 62(8), e2026WR043639, https://doi.org/10.1029/2026WR043639
3. Yildiz, V., Brown, S., & Rougé, C. (2025). Robust and computationally efficient design for run-of-river hydropower. Environmental Modelling & Software, 183, p.106220, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2024.106220.
4. Yildiz, V., Brown, S., & Rougé, C. (2024). Importance of variable turbine efficiency in run‐of‐river hydropower design under deep uncertainty. Water Resources Research, 60(6), e2023WR035713, https://doi.org/10.1029/2023WR035713.
5. Yildiz, V., Brown, S., & Rougé, C. (2023). Statistical generation of climate-perturbed flow duration curves. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, p. 2499--2507, https://doi.org/ 10.5194/hess-27-2499-2023.
6. Yildiz, V., Vrugt, J. A. (2019). A toolbox for the optimal design of run-of-river hydropower plants, Environmental Modelling & Software, 111, 134–152, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2018.08.018.
B) Book Chapters
7. Yildiz, V., Onen, M.O.,& Cosut, M. Deep Learning Applications for Reservoir Release Forecasting In Artificial Intelligence in Civil Engineering: Recent Advances. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2026. 409-423.
8. Yildiz, V., Onen, M.O., Arslan, C. and Hatipoglu, M.A. (2024). Drought Management and Planning for Water Resources. In Hydrology and Urban Water Supply. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-72589-0_8.
9. Yildiz, V., Hatipoglu, M.A., Kumcu, S.Y. (2022). Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources. In Water and Wastewater Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-95288-4_2
C) Conference Abstracts and Presentations:
• Modernizing Hydropower through Turbine Upgrades Improves Efficiency and Resilience. EGU General Assembly, 2026.
•Capturing Dynamic Hydropower Performance in Long-Term Energy Planning. EGU General Assembly, 2026.
•Hydropower Efficiency Is Declining. By How Much, and How Can We Adapt?. AGU Annual Meeting, 2025.
•Redefining Retrofit Priorities for Non-Powered Dams through Performance and Robustness Metrics. AGU Annual Meeting, 2025.
•Adapting hydropower turbines at reservoirs to increase generation. AGU Annual Meeting, 2024.
•Data-Driven Analysis of Heatwave Impacts on Rural Mental Health and Substance Use. AGU Annual Meeting, 2024.
•Advancing Small Hydropower Design: A Novel Framework for Robust and Sustainable Solutions. EGU General Assembly, 2024.
•Modernizing RoR Hydropower: A Study on Retrofitting Aged Turbines for Optimal Performance. EGU General Assembly, 2024.
•Computationally inexpensive robust design of run-of-river hydropower plants. EGU General Assembly, 2023.
•Perturbing the flow duration curve to explore future flow conditions without a hydrological model. EGU General Assembly, 2022.
•Run of River hydropower: in an uncertain world, is smaller financially smarter? EGU General Assembly, 2022.
•Robust Small Hydropower Design, 2nd IFAC Workshop on Control Methods for Water Resource Systems, 2022.
•Application multi-objective robust decision-making to the design of run-of-river hydropower plants. EGU General Assembly, 2021.
D) Conference Proceedings Papers
• Assessing Hydropower Modernization Needs: Adaptive Turbine Retrofitting with HyTUNE, 13th National Hydrology Congress, 2026.
•The Basin Planning Program (DSI HaPP), An Innovative Decision Making Tool for Planning and Development of Water Resources Impacted by Increasing Water Demand and Climate Change. 11th National Hydrology Congress, 2022.
•Contribution of Dams in the Management of National and Transboundary Watersheds. 10th National Hydrology Congress, 2019.
Courses:
| Course Code | Course Title |
| CE214 | Fluids Mechanics |
| CE315 - 412 | Hydraulic Engineering I - II |
| CE322 | Sustainable in Civil Engineering |
| CE48V | Water Resources Systems Analysis and Intelligent Decision Support |
| CE503 | Mathematical Methods in Engineering |
Awards:
•Outstanding Teaching Delivery Award, Recognized for exceptional teaching contributions in Multidisciplinary Engineering Education (MEE) during the 2023-24 academic year.
•Graduate Teaching Excellence Award, Recognized for outstanding contributions to Multidisciplinary Engineering Education (MEE) during the 2022-23 academic year.
•Departmental GTA Prize, Awarded in recognition of significant contributions as a Graduate Teaching Assistant during the 2021-22 academic year at the University of Sheffield.
•Unleash Your Data and Software 2024 – Funded Project Award, Recognized for the project “PyHYPER: Bridging Expertise with Open-Source Solutions for Sustainable Hydropower Design”, supporting open research and innovation in sustainable engineering (GBP 5000).
•PhD Scholarship, Faculty of Engineering University Research Scholarship to pursue doctoral research at the University of Sheffield, following a rigorous selection process (GBP 150K, 2020-24).
•MSc Scholarship, Prestigious grant awarded by the Turkish Ministry of National Education, secured through a highly competitive selection process (USD 100K, 2013-15).
