Prof. Özdemir was born in Konya. He completed his primary and middle school education in Istanbul and his secondary education at a four-year teacher-training high school in Konya. In 1982, he graduated from the Department of Mathematics at Istanbul University’s Faculty of Science. He earned his Master's degree in 1987 and his Ph.D. in 1993, specializing in "Number Theory," from the Institute of Science and Technology at Istanbul Technical University.

Beginning his academic career in the Department of Mathematics at Uludağ University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences between 1984 and 1988, Prof. Özdemir served in the Department of Mathematics at Mimar Sinan University's Faculty of Arts and Sciences from 1988 to 1995. From 1995 onward, he worked as a Lecturer (PhD) at Marmara University Atatürk Faculty of Education. He served as an Assistant Professor from 1997 to 2010 and as an Associate Professor from 2010 to 2015. Having served continuously for 25 years as the Head of the Division of Primary Mathematics Education at Marmara University Atatürk Faculty of Education, Prof. Özdemir served as the Head of the Department of Mathematics and Science Education between 2016 and 2019, and as the Head of the Division of Mathematics Education from 2016 to 2024.

Prof. Özdemir has supervised 25 Ph.D. dissertations and 43 Master's theses to completion, and currently supervises 4 Ph.D. dissertations and 4 Master's theses. His academic portfolio includes nearly 68 articles published in reputable journals indexed in national and international databases. Having participated in 9 completed research projects, his works have received over 200 citations in national and international publications. He has presented and published papers in over 100 national and international symposia. During this period, he organized and chaired 7 national and international congresses and symposia. He has published five books, with one more forthcoming. In addition to serving as a reviewer for 4 peer-reviewed journals, he holds memberships and board positions in various professional mathematics associations and non-governmental organizations. For academic research, he spent three months in New York in 1998, and spent a year in London during 2014–2015 on a TÜBİTAK Postdoctoral Fellowship. His research interests include Number Theory, Mathematics Education and Teaching, Educational Statistics, History of Mathematics, Cryptography and Magic Squares, Mathematical Modeling, and STEM Education and Instruction.

Prof. Özdemir served as the Dean of Marmara University Atatürk Faculty of Education from 2015 to 2020 and currently serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Education at Istanbul Sabahattin Zaim University. He has advanced proficiency in English and intermediate proficiency in Arabic. Prof. Özdemir, who also holds a traditional license (ijazah) in Islamic calligraphy, is married and has four children.