Institute of Advanced Studies, Manchester Metropolitan University, 1994

Endüstri Ürünleri Tasarımı, Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, 1988

After receiving his education in industrial design at Middle East Technical University (METU), Prof. Dr. Alpay ER earned his PhD in design policies and management from Manchester Metropolitan University (1994, UK). He briefly worked at Hacettepe University, followed by Istanbul Technical University (ITU) as a faculty member (1997-2013).

Between 2006-2013, he served as the Head of the Department of Industrial Product Design at ITU. Since 2013, he has been the Head of the Department of Industrial Product Design at Özyeğin University (ÖzÜ), Faculty of Architecture and Design. From 2014 to 2024, Prof. Dr. ER was the coordinator of the interdisciplinary Master's and PhD programs in Design, Technology, and Society at the ÖzÜ Institute of Social Sciences. In the Spring semester of 2017, he worked as a visiting professor at Universita Degli Studi Della Campania (Naples, Italy). Prof. Dr. Alpay ER has been actively involved in the Industrial Designers Society of Turkey (ETMK) since its establishment, serving as the Chairman of the ETMK Istanbul Branch from 2004 to 2006.

From 2011-2013, he served as the first Board Member representing Turkey in the International Council of Societies of Industrial Design (ICSID). ICSID, which changed its name to the World Design Organization (WDO) in 2017, had Prof. Dr. ER as a Board Member from 2015-2017, and he was re-elected to the WDO Board of Directors for the 2017-2019 term during the General Assembly held in Turin in October 2017, representing Turkey and Özyeğin University for the third time. He has served on the juries of numerous international design awards and competitions, including Red Dot, IF, and RedStar China. In 2012, he was honored as an honorary member by the Creative Industries Council (YEKON) and in 2017, he was awarded the Knight First Class, Order of the Lion of Finland, by the President of Finland for his contributions to the development of bilateral relations in the field of design.

Prof. Dr. Alpay ER has been a member of the Design Research Society (Fellow of DRS) since 2006 and continues to serve as a regional editor for the journal Design Issues (The MIT Press). His academic work has been published in journals such as the Journal of Design History (Oxford University Press) and Design Issues (MIT Press), and has been translated into Chinese, Italian, German, Korean, and Portuguese, in addition to English and Turkish.