Dr. Remziye Hisar: Google Doodle celebrates Turkish first modern women chemist

Google Doodle celebrates a Turkish academic and chemist Dr. Remziye Hisar, who is viewed as one of the first modern women scientists of Turkey, on December 13, 2021.

Who was Dr. Remziye Hisar?

Remziye Hisar was born in 1902 in Üsküp, then part of the Ottoman Empire. As the first Turkish woman with a degree from Sorbonne University, she was involved in academic positions at different Turkish universities during her career and published various articles, generally on metaphosphates and Turkish herbs.

One year after the announcement of the Second Constitution, the family got back to Istanbul in 1909. She was joined up with an elementary school while her grandma facilitated the family in her home. Remziye Hisar completed the 3-grade school in one year just procuring her first diploma.

With the appointment of Remziye Hisar’s dad to somewhere else in Istanbul, the family moved again and she was educated for secondary education at better places on the two sides of Bosporus. She then, at that point, followed her teacher, who was delegated to the Girls’ Teachers High School (Ottoman Turkish: Dârülmuallimât‎).

Remziye Hisar studied for five years at the boarding school in Çapa, Fatih including the two extra years, which enabled study at a higher educational institution. Remziye was educated in natural science at “Darülfünun” (forerunner of the present Istanbul University), where her primary interest was in chemistry. She graduated with honors on July 15, 1919.

Just after graduation, Remziye Hisar joined a small group of her female schoolmates to go to Baku, Azerbaijan to serve there at a teacher’s college. Remziye met Reşit Süreyya (later surnamed Gürsey), a medicine doctor from Turkey. The couple engaged on March 18, 1920, and wedded one month after the fact on April 20. Exceptionally soon after, she and her husband left Azerbaijan, which got attacked by the Soviet Army and got back to Istanbul.

In 1922, Remziye Hisar followed her husband to Paris, France to finish her higher education. Remziye procured a certificate in biochemistry. She was the first Turkish woman to acquire a certificate in Sorbonne.

Shown up in Istanbul, Remziye Hisar was appointed administrative staff at Erenköy Girls High School. Thereupon, the Minister of Education Cemal Hüsnü (Taray) offered her a scholarship for doctoral studies in France. She directed research on Metaphosphate by Paul Pascal (1880-1968) accepting her Ph.D. title three years after the fact with honors.

As one of the era’s few Turkish women to study abroad, Remziye Hisar advanced her chemistry studies in 1923 at Paris’ esteemed Sorbonne University. Here, she studied under various pioneering researchers including the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in Physics, Marie Curie.

The next year, Dr. Remziye Hisar made history as the first Turkish woman to graduate from the Sorbonne. Hisar finished her doctoral thesis in 1933, that same year she started her residency as a chemistry researcher and professor at Istanbul University. Hisar’s work proceeded in different scientific departments until her retirement in 1973.

In 1933, Dr. Remziye Hisar got back. She was selected associate professor of general chemistry and physical chemistry at Istanbul University, which had recently gone through an organizational renewal.

In 1936, Dr. Remziye Hisar moved to Ankara to take the post of an expert for biochemistry at the Pharmacodynamics Department of Public Health Institute.

In 1947, Remziye Hisar, who had adopted the surname Hisar following the beginning of the 1934 Surname Law in 1934, went to Istanbul Technical University to take again the post of associate professor in chemistry at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering and Chemistry.

Dr. Remziye Hisar was elevated to full professor in 1959. In 1973, she retired. She published more than 20 articles during her career, generally about metaphosphates and Turkish herbs, a considerable lot of which were published in Bulletin de la Société Chimique de France.

In 1991, she was rewarded by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK).

After her retirement, Remziye Hisar resided in her home at Anadoluhisarı acquired from her dad. She died soon after hearing the death of her son Feza in 1992.

Dr. Remziye Hisar is broadly credited for establishing the framework of modern Turkish scientific studies, particularly those of her son Feza Gürsey, a famous theoretical physicist, and daughter Deha Gürsey, one of few Turks to work for the International Psychological Union.

On December 13, 2021, Google featured a Doodle on its home page for celebrating Dr. Remziye Hisar.

On this day in 1991, the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey awarded Hisar with the Service Award for Dr. Remziye Hisar’s lifetime of pioneering work in education.