Zorlutuna has a bachelor's degree from
Ankara University, and received a master's degree and Ph.D. through a joint program in biotechnology and bioengineering of the
Middle East Technical University in Ankara and
Queen Mary University of London in the UK, completed in 2009. After postdoctoral research at the
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and the
Harvard–MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology, she became an assistant professor of
mechanical engineering at the
University of Connecticut in 2012. She moved to the University of Notre Dame in 2014, and received the Roth-Gibson Professorship of Bioengineering in 2023. ==Recognition==