Birgül Akolpoglu is a Scientific Project Manager at the Scientific Coordination Office of Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems (MPI-IS) and Coordinator for Robotics Institute Germany (RIG) at the institute.

Before her career in science management, Birgül was a doctoral researcher at the Physical Intelligence Department, where she worked on microalgae and bacteria-based microrobots for medical applications. Birgül received her doctoral degree (Dr. sc.) in Information Technology and Electrical Engineering from ETH Zurich (Switzerland) in 2023. 

In her free time, Birgül enjoys reading and writing, and she wrote and edited articles for The Offspring Magazine of the MPI PhDnet and Materials Research Society (MRS) Bulletin. She previously served as PhD student representative at MPI Stuttgart. She loves film photography, her two cats, literature, and swimming.