Ayten Yilmaz Wagner

“I am very passionate to provide as many CLIMATIC units as possible to the industry, in order to contribute to cleaner air for all of us ”

Back in the early 90s, the city of Ankara in Turkey experienced the phenomenon “smog”. Turkey was in an economic crisis and it was a cold winter, so in order to heat the homes, the Turkish people was burning basically whatever they could afford – including illegally sold bad quality coal. The schools and public offices were closed, and people were advised to stay indoors and keep the windows closed. I was a teenager at that time and my parents certainly had their challenges to keep me indoor. Even though we were not allow, a few friends and I agreed to go outside. Within five minutes we all rushed back inside the houses, since we could neither see nor breath. That day I felt the air pollution on my own body, having a strange burning feeling in my throat, nose and eyes, which lasted for days.

When I had to choose a career path, I started studying Environmental Engineering and a year later I got accepted to a Double Major Degree Program in Chemical Engineering. In the last year of my studies I was fortunate to have a well-paid internship, which gave me an appetite to work for the industry. My first job was to implement the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System in a coatings company. I liked my job, but I missed the subject that I had the most interest to work with: Air Pollution. For that reason I decided to come to Technical University of Denmark for a MSc degree in Environmental Engineering; leaving a well-paid job, a rather high living standard and most importantly my family and friends behind. I became a student again, with a very limited budget in an expensive city. During my thesis, I went to Hat-Yai in Thailand, where I did a BTX mapping of the town to help my own state of economy, while staying in the path, via an exchange program.

After my MSc degree, an opportunity to do a PhD in Chemical Engineering came along, where I investigated particle emissions from domestic gas cookers for three years. After finishing my PhD I got an email from the foundation who financed my MSc studies, telling me to either go back to Turkey within a month or pay back the full amount of money. I negotiated a deal with the foundation where I could pay off the scholarship, while working full time in Denmark. In spring 2018, after working ten years, I suddenly realised that I wanted to refocus on my passion. That is why I chose to join Infuser in August 2018. As Global Business Manager of CLIMATIC, I am very passionate to provide as many CLIMATIC units as possible to the industry, in order to contribute to cleaner air for all of us.