Oktay Sinanoğlu
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Oktay Sinanoğlu is a Turkish scientist of theoretical chemistry and molecular biology. He was the youngest person in the past century to attain a status of professor at Yale University when he earned the status at the age of 28.
[edit] Biography
Sinanoğlu was born on February 25, 1935 in Bari, Italy where his father served as a consul general. In 1939 by the commence of World War II, the family returned to Turkey. In 1953, he attended the high school "TED Yenişehir Lisesi" in Ankara, and after graduating won a scholarship for education of chemistry in the USA. In 1956, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in chemical engineering with the highest rank. In only eight months, he graduated from MIT in 1957 with the highest degree. In two years, he finished his doctorate at UC Berkeley. In 1960, Sinanoğlu started working as associate professor at Yale University. He theorized the "Many-Electron Theory of Atoms and Molecules" in 1962 by solving a mathematical theorem that had been unsolved for 50 years. The same year, he earned the "Alfred P. Sloan" prize. As appointed professor in 1963 at the age of only 28, he became the youngest person in the past century at Yale to attain the status as a full professor. He got his second life-long chair in Yale in Molecular Biology.
Sinanoğlu was the first to earn the Alexander von Humboldt's Science Prize in 1973. In 1975, he won the award of Japan's International Outstanding Scientist. In the 1980s, he theorized a new method from 180 theories concerning mathematics and physics, considered revolutionary, which enables chemists to predict the ways in which chemicals combine in the laboratory and to solve other complex problems in chemistry using simple pictures and periodic tables. Also, he took his place in the Academy of Arts & Sciences. In 1993, he moved to Turkey to teach at the Yıldız Teknik Universitesi, and officially retired at the age of 67. Yet his scientific researches have not ceased.
He received several international and local awards concerning his scientific and social contributions and efforts. He has been to many places including Asia and Latin America. He tried to establish strong communications between Japan, India and Turkey. Because of his efforts, he was given the title "Special Emissary" of Japan-Turkey. He worked for better education, purified language in Turkey most of his life and strived to form a conscious generation.
