Oktay Sinanoğlu

Oktay Sinanoğlu (born on August 2, 1934 in Bari, Italy) is a Turkish scientist specializing in theoretical chemistry and molecular biology. In May 1963 at the age of 29 (28 years+9 months), he was full professor at Yale University. He was mistakenly proclaimed by Yale as "the youngest person in the 20th century at Yale to attain the status of full professor"; because, Robert Hutchins was youngest full professor at the age of 28 years+4 months at Yale in 1927.

Biography

Sinanoğlu was born in 1934 in Bari, Italy, where his father (Nüzhet Haşim Sinanoğlu) served as a consul general. In 1939 - by the commencement of World War II - the family returned to Turkey. In 1953, he graduated from TED Yenişehir High School in Ankara; after graduating he won a scholarship to study chemistry in the US. In 1956, he graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in chemical engineering with the highest rank. In eight months, he graduated from MIT in 1957 with the highest degree. In two years, he finished his doctorate at the University of California at Berkeley.

In 1960, Sinanoğlu started working as an assistant professor at Yale University. He authored the "Many-Electron Theory of Atoms and Molecules"tr:Atom ve Moleküllerin Çok Elektronlu Teorisi in 1961 after solving a mathematical theorem that had been unsolved for fifty years. The same year, he earned the Alfred P. Sloan prize. Appointed full professor in May 1963 at the age of 29 (28 years+9 months),(according to U.S. Public Records, born 2th August 1934), and he was proclaimed by Yale University as "the youngest person in the 20th century at Yale to attain the status of full professor" by using a false born date (25th February 1935 - The New York Times, 22th May 1963 and http://www.quantum-chemistry-history.com/Sinanog1.htm). He got his second life-long chair in Yale in Molecular Biology.. All of these were an advertising campaing of Yale University President Kingman Brewster Jr. (The New York Times, 13th October 1963. Page 1. Col.3) Prof. Kenneth Sanborn Pitzer said that: "He first took an undergraduate course in thermodynamics with me while in a chemical engineering major, went to MIT for graduate work in chemical engineering, and decided he liked basic science better than engineering. After getting a master s degree there, he came back here and wanted to work for a Ph.D. and do chemistry with me. I took him on. He was a very able young man. The calculations we did about very simple molecules on a simple surface was a pioneering calculation which other people have followed up on in more detail. I didn t follow it up any further, and I don t think Sinanoglu did either. He went on to Yale, was promoted very rapidly there to a regular professorship, but I think was rather disappointing in his career as a whole, considering this very promising start. Nonetheless, he did commendable work at Yale, just not as outstanding as his early promise had suggested." (University of California, Berkeley, University History - Oral History Series, 1999, Page.136)

Sinanoğlu proclaimed that he was the first to earn the Alexander von Humboldt's Science Prize in 1973. His proclaimation was wrong. Because; he received "Alexander von Humboldt Foundation Senior United States Scientist Award" in the year 1973; but, according to record of American Chemical Society Directory of Graduate Book 1979 page 235; Biochemist Brian Green (b.1935), earned this prize in 1964 when he was postdoctoral fellow at Maine University-Orono. This award was granted within the frame of a special program established by the Federal Republic of Germany in commemoration of the European Recovery Program initiated by George C. Marshall. The Award entitles the awardee to carry out research of his own choice in the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin. This award was established in the years 1964-1965 and hundreds of United States Scientists gained this award every year.) In 1975, he won Japan's International Outstanding Scientist award. In the 1980s, he constructed methods, then considered revolutionary, for predicting chemical behavior using simple pictures and periodic tables, and took his place in the Academy of Arts & Sciences. In 1985 he entered Nichiren Shoshu Buddist Sect Organisation. [Milliyet, 29.05.1985, page 3: "Turk Profesor Sinanoglu Budist Oldu" - "Huzuru Buda'da Buldum"] In 1993, he moved back to Turkey to teach at the Yıldız Teknik Universitesi, officially retired at the age of 67 in the year 2001, according to his born date: 2 August 1934. His scientific research efforts continue.

Sinanoğlu has been to Asia and Latin America and received several international and local awards concerning his scientific and social contributions and efforts. He has worked to establish communication between Japan, India, and Turkey. Because of his efforts, he was given the title "Special Emissary" to Japan. He worked for improvements in education and the purification of language in Turkey for most of his life and strove to form a 'conscious generation' there.

External links

• Quantum chemistry history
• His scientific studies
• Atom ve Moleküllerin Çok Elektronlu Teorisi / Many Electron Theory of Atoms and Molecules