Aziz Sancar

Aziz Sancar was born in Savur, Mardin. He graduated from Istanbul University's medical faculty, worked for a time as a doctor in his home region and then earned a doctorate in biochemistry in the United States.

He showed how cells "repair" DNA damaged by ultraviolet light — the mechanism of nucleotide excision repair — and in 2015 shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Tomas Lindahl and Paul Modrich.

Sancar has long worked at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He donated his Nobel medal to Anıtkabir and set up a foundation for students from Türkiye.