Ethem Alpaydın received his BSc from the Department of Computer Engineering of Boğazici University in 1987, and the degree of Docteur es Sciences from Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne in 1990. He did his postdoctoral work at the International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley between Feb-Aug 1991.
Between 1991 and 2019, he was a Professor at the Department of Computer Engineering of Boğaziçi University. Between 2019 and 2026, he was a Professor at the Department of Computer Science at Özyeğin University.
As a visiting researcher, he worked at the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT in 1994, International Computer Science Institute, Berkeley in 1997, IDIAP, Switzerland in 1998, and TU Delft in 2014.
He was Fulbright Senior Scholar in 1997/1998 and received the Research Excellence Award from the Boğaziçi University Foundation in 1998 (junior faculty) and 2008 (senior faculty), the Young Scientist Award from the Turkish Academy of Sciences in 2001, and the Scientific Encouragement Award from the Turkish Scientific and Technical Research Council in 2002.
He is a member of The Science Academy, Turkey since 2012, and Academia Europaea since 2023.