Tolga Kurtoglu has held many different jobs over the course of his professional career. After moving from the country of Turkey to the United States of America, Tolga Kurtoglu started attending college at the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University, which is located in the city of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Tolga Kurtoglu earned his Masters degree in Mechanical Engineering from Carnegie Mellon in 2001, where he had the chance to speak frequently to classes of undergraduates as a graduate teaching assistant. Tolga Kurtoglu very much enjoyed this opportunity to teach and likes being in front of a group sharing his expertise.

After working as a researcher for a number of years, Tolga Kurtoglu moved on and became a Mechanical Design Engineer at the Dell computer company, a leader in technological innovation. Tolga Kurtoglu worked at Dell for a number of years before moving on to again work as a researcher, this time at the University of Texas at Austin. Tolga Kurtoglu earned his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007, during which time he again had the opportunity to teach undergraduate courses. After working at the University of Texas at Austin, Tolga Kurtoglu went on to work as a Research Scientist at the NASA Ames Research Center.

In addition to his graduate studies, Tolga Kurtoglu has served as guest lecturer and speaker at various prestigious universities and truly enjoys working with and educating college students. Tolga Kurtoglu honed his skills as a lecturer during his time in graduate school because there is the general expectation that graduate students will teach undergraduate courses. Tolga Kurtoglu enjoys coming up with new and interesting ways to present ideas and always aims to teach engaging and interactive lessons. Tolga Kurtoglu hopes that some of his teaching inspires younger students to go into the science and engineering fields.