Niyazi Onur Bakir was born in Iskenderun, Turkey in 1976. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from Bilkent University Department of Industrial Engineering in 1998. He came to the United States upon completion of his undergraduate studies to pursue an academic career. He finished his master's degree in Economics from Texas A&M University in 2000 and further continued his academic work to receive a Ph. D. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M in 2004. He worked at General Motors in 2004 as a visiting scholar and joined USC National Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events as a risk analyst in 2005 to conduct postdoctoral research. He has expertise in probabilistic modeling, risk and decision analysis as well as border security. Onur is a native of Mersin, Turkey, a city on the Mediterranean coast where people from diverse ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds have been living peacefully for years. He is excited to be a part of LATAA and wishes to serve both the Turkish and the local community in Southern California.