Professor Gürkan is a pioneer in Turkish transplant surgery. He performed the country's first laparoscopic kidney removal from a living donor – a technique using small incisions for faster recovery.
- Performed Turkey's first minimally invasive kidney donation outside a university setting
- Completed an eighteen-month research fellowship at Yale University's Experimental Surgery Centre
- Fellow of the American College of Surgeons
- Member of the Turkish Society of Nephrology and the Organ Transplant Institution Association
- Recognised with the Top Researcher Award from the Turkish Organ Transplant Society