Born on September 15, 1949, Prof. Dr. Semih Koray is a mathematician and an expert in game theory and economic design with a background from Boğaziçi University. He served at Bilkent University between 1992 and 2023. He is the mastermind behind the Turkish Mathematical Olympiads.

He graduated from Istanbul Erkek Lisesi (Istanbul Boys’ High School) with first honors in the 1966-67 academic year. He graduated from the Physics Department of Boğaziçi University with high honors in 1972, and completed his PhD in mathematics at the same university in 1980.

He has worked on economic design, game theory, and social choice theory. He served as a faculty member at the Department of Economics at Bilkent University for many years (1992-2023) and has also been honored with Emeritus status after his retirement.

His articles have been published in prestigious academic journals such as Social Choice and Welfare, Review of Economic Design, Journal of Economic Theory, and Econometrica. He has served as an editor for the Review of Economic Design journal.

He is the mastermind behind the science olympiads that started in Turkey in 1984. He has served as the President of the Turkish Mathematical Olympiad Committee and as a member of the Advisory Board of the International Mathematical Olympiad.

He currently serves as the Deputy Chairman of the Vatan Party and the President of the World Civilizations Initiative Research Center. He publishes columns in the Aydınlık Newspaper and articles in the Bilim ve Ütopya and Teori magazines.