Draft:Elif Bilgin Morris

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  • Comment: What this needs is ideally three examples of the WP:GOLDENRULE - independent reliable sources talking about the subject at significant length. Sources such as the subject talking on YouTube may be useful for verification, but are not helping for notability. For notability the subject can't drive this, it has to be other people commenting on the subject. Many of the sources here are not reliable (X, Daily Sabah). ChrysGalley (talk) 14:52, 17 June 2026 (UTC)


Elif Bilgin Morris
Elif presenting at KotlinConf 2024 in Copenhagen, Denmark
Born
Elif Bilgin

(1997-01-02) January 2, 1997
Madison, Wisconsin, U.S.
Alma materJohns Hopkins University (B.S., 2019)
Johns Hopkins Carey Business School (MBA, 2025)
Known forInventor of a method to make bioplastic from banana peels
Spouse
Mete Morris
​
(m. 2025)​
AwardsGoogle Science Fair Science in Action Award
Google Science Fair Voter's Choice Award
Scientific career
FieldsSoftware Engineering · Biomedical Engineering · Machine Learning · Artificial Intelligence · Android · Surgical Robotics · Computer-Integrated Surgery

Elif Bilgin Morris (née Bilgin; born January 2, 1997) is a Turkish-American scientist, software engineer, and speaker. She is known as a winner of the 2013 Google Science Fair, where her project on producing bioplastic from banana peels earned both the Scientific American Science in Action Award and the Voter's Choice Award. She is currently a Senior Software Engineer at Google, serving as Technical Lead and API Owner for the AndroidX Jetpack libraries DataStore and Room, which are used by over two million applications.[1] She holds a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering with a specialization in Surgical Robotics and Computer-Integrated Surgery from Johns Hopkins University and a Master of Business Administration from the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Early Life

Elif was born on January 2, 1997, in Madison, Wisconsin, to Turkish parents Melike Bilgin and Abdullah Bilgin, both computer scientists. The family relocated to Istanbul, Turkey, where she was raised. Her sister, Canan Bilgin Keçiciler, is a doctor who graduated from Cerrahpaşa Medical School.

For her secondary education, Elif attended VKV Koç Özel High School in Istanbul on a full merit scholarship, graduating in 2015.[2] Alongside her formal schooling, she spent seven years at BİLSEM (Istanbul Science and Art Center for Gifted Youth), a Turkish state institution that admits students who score in the genius category on the WISC-R intelligence test, completing programs in mathematics and biology and graduating in 2014.[2][3] She served as Student Body President of BİLSEM for the 2011–2012 academic year.[3]

She moved to the United States for university, attending Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she completed a double major Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering, with a specialization in Surgical Robotics and Computer-integrated surgery, and Computer Science in 2019.[3] During her undergraduate years she pursued research across three areas. She worked for four years as a Sensor Development Research Assistant in the laboratory of neuroscientist Gül Dölen, building low-cost electronic motion tracking sensors using electrical paint to study social behavior in mice, and developing the software to operate and process data from these sensors.[3] She also worked as a Surgical Data Science Research Assistant at Johns Hopkins Hospital, applying deep learning and machine learning to surgical video data and instrument motion data from the Da Vinci robotic surgery system as part of the university's computer-integrated surgery research program, with the aim of assessing surgeon skill levels during robot-assisted procedures.[3] She later pursued graduate studies in Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University before transferring to the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, where she earned an MBA in 2025.[1]

Career

Google Science Fair

In 2013, Elif, then 16 years old and a student at Koç High School in Istanbul, won two awards at the third annual Google Science Fair for her project titled Going Bananas! Using Banana Peels in the Production of Bioplastic as a Replacement for Traditional Petroleum Based Plastic.[4] She was one of four winners of the 2013 competition, alongside Eric Chen (17, United States), Ann Makosinski (15, Canada), and Viney Kumar (14, Australia).[5]

Motivated by the plastic pollution she observed in the Bosphorus and throughout Istanbul, Elif set out to develop a biodegradable alternative to petroleum-based plastic.[6] After noticing that mango peels had been used elsewhere in the plastics industry, she hypothesized that banana peels-whose starch and cellulose content made them a promising feedstock, and which are discarded in vast quantities globally-could serve as the basis for a viable bioplastic.[6] She began the project at age 14 and spent two years refining her process, enduring ten failed trials before producing a non-decaying bioplastic she envisioned for use in cosmetic prosthetics and cable insulation.[4][7]

Her project won the Scientific American Science in Action Award ($50,000), given to a project that makes a practical difference addressing an environmental, health, or resources challenge, and must be innovative, easy to implement, and reproducible in other communities.[4] It also won the Voter's Choice Award ($10,000), determined by public voting conducted over the internet from around the world.[5][8]

As part of her recognition, Elif was invited to visit CERN in Geneva by Turkish physicist Bilge Demirköz, a professor at Middle East Technical University who coordinates the first collaboration between Turkey and CERN.[3]

Speaking and Media

Following her Google Science Fair success, Elif became a prominent speaker on science, sustainability, and innovation. She delivered talks at TEDx Vienna, TEDx Istanbul, and TEDx Diyarbakır, and spoke at Google Zeitgeist America 2013.[3][9] She also addressed the European Commission's Innovation Convention in Brussels and Google for Education conferences in Austin, Texas.[3] The Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) produced a documentary about her project, My Banana Peels, which aired across Asia-Pacific countries.[3] British publisher HarperCollins devoted three pages of an English-language grammar textbook to her work, under the title "Think Differently."[3]

Between 2013 and 2016, Elif served as an On Air Host for Google, presenting Live Google Hangouts related to the Google Science Fair.[10] During her undergraduate studies she interned at Oracle in software engineering (2018) and at Virgin Galactic at Mojave Air and Space Port (2017), where she worked on the team of Beth Moses, Virgin Galactic's chief astronaut instructor and interiors program manager, instrumenting passenger seats and programming sensor kits for SpaceShipTwo. During her internship she met the company's founder Richard Branson.[11]

Google

Elif joined Google as a Software Engineer in September 2019, initially contributing to platform-level indoor and outdoor location accuracy features on the [Android] Location & Context Team and leading the end-to-end development and public launch of the WifiRttLocator application, a reference app developed in partnership with Google and published on the Google Play Store.[12][13] Since 2020 she has served as the primary maintainer and Technical Lead for AndroidX DataStore and a core contributor to Room, storage libraries that serve more than two million applications and hundreds of internal Google projects.[14]

She has spoken at major Android developer conferences including Android Dev Summit 2021,[12] KotlinConf 2024 in Copenhagen,[1][14] and droidCon 2024.[15] Since April 2026 she has additionally contributed to the Google Research Health AI Team, developing solutions to improve health AI agent response.[16]

Education

Elif attended VKV Koç Özel High School in Istanbul on a full merit scholarship, graduating in 2015, and concurrently attended BİLSEM (Istanbul Science and Art Center for Gifted Youth) for seven years, graduating from its mathematics and biology programs in 2014.[2][3] She attended Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, where she completed a double major Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering, with a specialization in Surgical Robotics and Computer-integrated surgery, and Computer Science in 2019, conducting research in the laboratory of neuroscientist Gül Dölen and in the university's computer-integrated surgery research program.[3] She subsequently enrolled in the Management Science and Engineering graduate program at Stanford University before transferring to the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, from which she earned a Master of Business Administration in 2025.[1]

Awards and Recognition

Publications

  • Going Bananas! Using Banana Peels in the Production of Bioplastic as a Replacement for Traditional Petroleum Based Plastic (Google Science Fair project, 2013)[4]
  • How Coding Can Save the Environment[3]

References

  1. "Elif Bilgin Morris – KotlinConf 2024 Speaker Profile". KotlinConf. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  2. "Elif Bilgin: Turkey's environmental wonder kid". Daily Sabah. 2014-08-21. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  3. "Elif Bilgin – Social Good Summit Istanbul". sgsistanbul.org. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  4. "Teen Scientist's Banana-Based Plastic Wins Science in Action Award". Scientific American. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  5. Conway, Clare (2013-09-23). "And the winner of the 2013 Google Science Fair is..." The Keyword (Google). Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  6. "Google Science Fair – teen develops bioplastic made from banana peels". Engineering.com. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  7. "Science in Action Winner for 2013: Elif Bilgin". Scientific American. 2013-06-27. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  8. "Sixteen year old Elif Bilgin turned banana peels into a bioplastic". The Kid Should See This. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  9. "Going Bananas: redefining plastics: Elif Bilgin at TEDxVienna". YouTube. 2013-12-09. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  10. "Elif Bilgin – Google Android Developers". YouTube. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  11. @virgingalactic (2017-07-01). "Virgin Galactic tweet featuring Elif Bilgin at Mojave Air and Space Port" (Tweet). Retrieved 2026-06-17 – via Twitter.
  12. "Android Dev Summit 2021 – Elif Bilgin". YouTube. 2021-10-28. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  13. "WifiRttLocator – Google Play Store". Google Play. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  14. "Google @ KotlinConf 2024: A Look Inside Multiplatform Development with KMP and more". Google Developers Blog. 2024-05-23. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  15. "droidCon 2024 – Elif Bilgin Morris". YouTube. 2024-11-01. Retrieved 2026-06-17.
  16. "Elif Bilgin Morris – KotlinConf 2026 Speaker Profile". KotlinConf. Retrieved 2026-06-17.

Category:1997 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century American inventors Category:21st-century American women inventors Category:American people of Turkish descent Category:American women scientists Category:American women engineers Category:Google employees Category:Johns Hopkins University alumni Category:Scientists from Wisconsin Category:People from Madison, Wisconsin Category:People from Istanbul Category:Turkish scientists Category:Turkish women scientists Category:Turkish women engineers Category:Machine learning researchers