Melik Duyar
Melik Duyar ,born November 4, 1956, is from Istanbul, Turkey. He is called “the man who forgot to forget” by the Turkish media. As well as being one of the early pioneer mentathletes in the world, Mr Duyar is also one of the few leaders promoting brain training and mental literacy in the world. In 1994, after receiving one gold and two bronze medals in the “World Memory Championships” in London, he was presented among the first top ten mentathletes in the world by the “Buzan’s Book of Genius”.
Dubbed “Mr. Memory” by the Turkish actor Cihan Ünal, in 2014 he was featured in the Guinness Book of World Records’ “Mind and Memory Section” as the founder of “MEMORIAD World Mental Olympics”. He is a math, memory and speed reading trainer, motivational speaker and media personality. Duyar has appeared on numerous TV shows and published many brain training related books such as “Photographic Memory Techniques”, “Mega Mathematics”, “Mega Mental Arithmetic”, “Child, IQ and Memory” and “Mega Speed Reading”.
Melik Duyar was born on November 4, 1956, in Istanbul, Turkey. After graduating from M.E.T.U. (Middle East Technical University) as civil engineer in Ankara, Turkey in 1980, he attended “Public Administration Courses” at INTAN Institute in 1986 with a scholarship by Malaysian Government. Between 1988 and 1989, he had his graduate study in the Department of Economics at the University of Minnesota. He also took one year "Leadership Courses" under Hubert Humphrey Scholarship by the USA Government. When he was a student in the USA, he developed some card counting techniques and practiced them at the Casinos of Atlantic City in New Jersey at weekends. These card counting trials at casinos led him to take place in memory and mental calculation sports. During those years, Mr. Duyar started to deal with scientific studies on memorizing and speed learning skills. Then in 1993, Mr Duyar received Jean Monnet scholarship from European Union and completed another M.A. degree in the major of "European Union Economy" at Exeter University in England 1994.
During his education in the UK, Mr Duyar participated in the “World Memory Championship” in 1994 arranged by The Brain Foundation in London. He won a gold medal in the "Memorization of Paintings and Images (Photographic Memory)" category. He also received two silver medals in the "ONE HOUR PLAYING CARDS" and the "FLIGHT DISK CHALLENGE" categories in this championship. He became fourth rank in the "ONE HOUR NUMBER" category in the same championship as well. During / In this World Memory Championship experience, as a memory and mental calculation mental athlete and a speed reading enthusiast, Mr. Duyar realized that mental calculation and speed reading areas were not covered, being an international competitor was costly, there was no money prize for the winners, the answering and scoring procedures were manual with ‘pencil and paper’ and scoring was open to human error. Also, the competitiors were waiting for hours to learn their scores. Therefore, he started his dream of a computerized kind of “MEMORIAD World Mental Olympics” that would cover all memory, mental calculation and speed reading categories.
Mr. Duyar initiated his dream of founding the “MEMORIAD World Mental Olympics” in 2005. He, first, started by registering the brand “MEMORIAD” in the world. He and his software team prepared and distributed a software called “Memoriad Competition Simulator” free of charge. This simulator software was a stand alone preparation software for the actual “MEMORIAD World Mental Olympic Games”. In 2006 six million copies of the “Memoriad Competition Simulator” software were downloaded by people in the world. With this free software campaign in 2006, all mental athletes and the people who were interested in memory, mental calculation and speed reading exercises got to know the ‘’MEMORIAD”. Even, most of the mentathletes in the world are using “Memoriad Competition Simulator” to prepare themselves for other local or national championships and competitions.
Then, in 2006, it was announced that the first “MEMORIAD World Mental Olympics” would be held in İstanbul in 2008 and a total of US$ 33000.- money prize would be distributed. It was the first promise kept for the money prize for memory, mental calculation or speed reading skills. The ‘Memoriad 2008’ was held at the Marmara Hotel in İstanbul, Turkey. The Turkish Ministry of Culture and Tourism supported the first ‘Memoriad Olympics as the main sponsor.
The Memoriad 2012 was held in Antalya, Turkey distributing the money prize as in the first and following Memoriad Olympics. The main sponsor was the international “Meeting Point” tourism corporation”.
“Memoriad World Mental Olympics” made a big impact in the world and for the first time in 2014 the approved World Mental Records of the Memoriad World Mental Olympics were published in the "Mind and Memory" category of “Guinness “ World Records” including the photographs and the achievements of the competitors with the Memoriad founder, Melik Duyar.
Melik Duyar has been awarded the 2015 International Brand Personality Award by the BrandLaureate Foundation for his outstanding contributions to the field of Brain Training and World Mental Sports.
Melik Duyar - International Brand Personality
The third Memoriad 2016 was held in 15 sub-categories of “Mental Calculation, Memory and Speed Reading” in Las Vegas, NV, USA. with the money prize of US$ 42500. Zappos Company was the main sponsor of the Memoriad World Mental Olympics.From 2005 to 2014, Mr Melik Duyar, as the founder, was the Chairman of “MEMORIAD World Mental Olympics Committee. In 2012, Scott Flansburg from the USA, the “Human Calculator, was assigned the Chairman of the Memoriad Committee. Since then, Melik Duyar has been the member of Memoriad World Mental Olympics Committee making contributions to MEMORIAD.
A Memory of Melik Duyar from “Memoriad™ 2016 Las Vegas World Mental Olympics
Melik Duyar starred in one of the promotional videos called "Altered Carbon" for Netflix Turkey in 2018.
Mr. Duyar worked as an engineer and the Training Center Manager in Iskenderun Iron and Steel Factories between 1980 and 1992. He also worked as the "Master Trainer" in some of the World Bank Projects. Focusing on memory, speed learning, brain training, development of mental potential and creative thinking techniques from about 1988, he has been still executing studies on these subjects and giving trainings, seminars and conferences.
Since about 1992, Mr. Duyar has regularly given lectures, presentations and conferences at schools, universities and corporate meetings. He states that one of his personal missions is to use education and MEMORIAD World Mental Olympics to elevate mental calculation, memory and speed reading confidence and self- esteem in adults and children.
Melik Duyar lives in Ankara, Turkey.
▪ Photographic Memory Thechniques
▪ Mega Mental Arithmetics
▪ Mega Mathematics – Mental Math and Memory Techniques
▪ Mega Innovation – Creative Thinking
▪ Child, IQ and Memory