Prof. Ates is an academic and practitioner with a strong focus on innovation, defence economy, development, entrepreneurship, energy economics, and socio-technical transformation. He currently serves as a professor at Ankara University of Social Sciences. Additionally, he is a Visiting Research Fellow at Pembroke College and Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Furthermore, he serves as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board at Green Crescent (Yeşilay), one of Turkey's oldest and most respected organizations dedicated to combating addiction.

Beyond his teaching and research responsibilities, he has been actively involved in projects with leading international organizations, including the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and the European Union (EU), where he has contributed as a consultant or country specialist.

He earned both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Vienna University of Economics and completed his doctoral studies in Social and Economic Sciences at the Vienna University of Technology.

In 2016–2017, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University. Additionally, as a recipient of the Taiwan Fellowship in 2020, he conducted research as a visiting scholar at National Taiwan University.