Dr. Bora Gencturk was born in Adana, Turkey in 1983. He lived in Adana, Istanbul and Ankara (Turkey) for different amounts of time before he moved to Istanbul where he started elementary school. He went to Koy Hizmetleri Anatolian High School before attending to one of the most well-respected higher education institutions in Turkey, Bogazici University. He graduated from Bogazici University with a Civil Engineering B.S. degree in 2006. Immediately after, he moved to United States for his graduate studies. He obtained his M.S. (2007) and Ph.D. (2011) degrees in Civil Engineering both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). Prior to joining to University of Southern California in August 2016, he worked at the University of Houston as an assistant professor for five years. He is married and father of one child. Dr. Gencturk enjoys watching movies, playing soccer and video games, and listening to classic and pop music.